Home Alone: Holiday Heists
by snheetah
Summary: [My rendition of Home Alone 1 and 2: It follows the same storyline just with added characters to the plots]: Kevin and Becky, his older sister, have been accidentally left home alone. Now with the house under their care, it is not just fun and games for the siblings when the 'Wet Bandits' decide rob their home. As time passes, history repeats itself in New York.
1. Pizza Mishap

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

 **Hello there everyone and thank in advance for checking out the story. This will be my rendition of Home Alone and how it would have been if both Kevin and an added sibling of his (my OC) had been left behind. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Ah yes...that wonderful time of the year was slowly approaching the city of Chicago. This was a holiday that many people looked forward to and so did a specific large family known as the McCallisters. The family had been planning a trip to Paris and it was one of the many cities of Europe that was highly visited by tourists, especially during the holidays. For one of the McCallister teens, Becky McCallister, she was all the more thrilled to be heading over to such a beautiful place. She had only seen places of such in textbooks from school, books that she had read, and even the world wide web where she would constantly find something new. However, going to a wondrous place such as Paris did not mean that she wasn't going unprepared. Aside from the amounts of clothes that she had just casually thrown in her suitcase, she had carefully selected a supply of books that she wanted to keep herself busy with during the time on the airplane.

"Did you pack yet?" her sister Linnie asked as she opened the door to the room that she shared with Becky. Due to the large family that was in the house sharing was definitely caring, but in Linnie's perspective she did not find it so caring if her sister snored every night.

"Yup," Becky answered her as she turned around from the computer screen that resided on the desk and faced her. "All set and ready to go," she replied and presented the opened suitcase that presented a heap of clothing that were thrown on top of one another.

Linnie turned her head and looked at the suitcase before looking at Becky with a raised eyebrow. "Seriously Becky?" she asked her with a look of disapproval and a shake of her head, "you know that mom will have a fit if she saw that." She craned her neck forward and looked at the colorful selection of clothing that were upon the suitcase but she was not impressed at what she saw. "You could at least _try_ and wear something suitable. You're not considering on walking around the streets of Paris with a baggy sweatshirt are you?"

"So what?" Becky said with a shrug of her shoulders, "I'm comfortable enough as it is."

"Oh Becky, Becky, Becky," Linnie began and shook her head with the name that she said. That tone of voice made it all the more for Becky to resist the urge to roll her eyes. It was bad enough that her sister had to lecture her about her taste in clothing and when she did, Becky tried her best to just tone her out. It was the same thing every time.

 _You need to dress more like a girl, you need to start wearing make-up, you need to start wearing high heels, you need this, you need that_. And that conversation was one that not only got old, but also irritating. "Alright Linnie I get it," the other teen said as she stood up from her chair and held her hands in the air. "But I would rather have a baggy sweatshirt than freeze to death during the month of December," she stated and before the other could say anything, Becky made her way out of the bedroom and into the bathroom.

"Ugh..." she softly groaned as she leaned towards the sink and looked over at her reflection in the mirror. The reflection that stared back at her was a young girl, wearing a green hooded sweatshirt where only a streak of her red hair fell out. Her eyes were green and her face was slightly peppered with freckles and it was something that Becky detested being born with. Some of her siblings only had some freckles while others did not have any at all! Why did she have to be the one to carry on, what she considered to be the bad gene? She lowered the hood of her green jacket and revealed her long red hair that had turned out to be a disheveled mess but it was nothing that a little hairbrush couldn't fix.

After finishing up her brushing, she pulled her red hair forward and threw the hood once again upon her head before heading out of the bathroom. As she stepped out, she noticed a familiar blond boy on the second floor to where she was and he looked all the more upset. "Did you hear me?" he exclaimed in a loud voice before he began jumping up and down, "I'm living alone! I'm living alone!"

"Whoa there!" Becky chuckled as the young blond boy turned around and looked at her, "careful or we might wind up on the first floor from all that jumping!"

"That's exactly what I mean..." the little boy mumbled. There were so many rules and so many people in the house that being the youngest child of the whole bunch, he felt that he was not even considered seriously like all the other siblings that he had.

"Who upset you now Kevin?" Becky asked her young brother as a look of concern crossed over her features. Even though she was one to keep quiet and keep her nose buried in a book, she was observant but never had the courage to even speak up against the others including her parents or even Uncle Frank whom she knew could be a real Grinch, especially around the holidays.

The younger boy Kevin let out a sigh as he looked up at his sister. "People are expecting me to pack my suitcase and when I don't know how, they just call me an idiot," he said, using the term that his other sister, Megan, had used.

"You know what?" Becky said as she threw an hand in the air and let it fall to her side, "neither do I. I just got lectured by Linnie again for throwing my clothes in my suitcase instead of neatly packing them."

"Is that better to do?" Kevin asked her, "throw everything in?"

"I find it easier and a time saver," his sister answered with a shrug of her shoulders, "I would rather be reading than packing to be honest."

"Then maybe you can help me what to choose," Kevin suggested as he looked at her, hoping that at least someone in this whole house would be able to assist him.

"Of course," Becky agreed with a nod of her head. Plus, it was better to be engaged with her little brother than with Linnie and her constant lectures. It wasn't that Becky despised Linnie for any reason but she just wished that she could be accepted for whom she was and how she dressed like. As Kevin took the lead to his room on the third floor that he shared with Fuller, Becky tightened the sweatshirt around her. It was very cold up in the room enough to give her goosebumps and she hoped that this packing wouldn't take too long.

"Okay," Kevin suddenly said as he looked at Becky, "where do we start?"

"Clothes," Becky answered, "those are always first."

With a nod of his head, Kevin walked over to the drawers and pulled out the amount of clothes that he believed that he needed. "Shirts, pants, underpants, stuff like that," Becky freely stated, "and just throw them in there and shut that suitcase up."

Hearing his sister's instructions, Kevin just threw them in there and bought the lid of the suitcase on top of the clothes. As he tried to zip it shut, the zipper wouldn't move. "It's not closing Becky," he muttered under his breath as he went into a mini battle with the zipper.

"Never fear," Becky said as she flopped on top of the suitcase and tried to put onto it as much weight as she could. She was a bit lightweight but the more weight that she applied on one end of the suitcase was enough for Kevin to zip it shut. "There," she sighed after the heard the suitcase being zipped in place.

"Well," Kevin said as his blue eyes bounced from the suitcase and over to Becky, "that was easy."

Becky chuckled at that. Now that the clothes had been taken care of, all that was needed left was his toothbrush, toothpaste, and comb and he was all set. The rest of the items, she assumed would be taken care of by the other adults. Suddenly, there was a noise heard downstairs like that of a mini stampede and a familiar smell made it's way up to the noses of the two McCallisters. "Do you smell that?" she asked as she took a sniff.

"Mmm pizza," Kevin said with a smile and rose his eyebrows to indicate that his favorite cheese pie was already in the house. That was one of the best things about skipping out on dinner and having it late. Nothing went wrong with pizza.

"I hope they ordered mushrooms," Becky said as she took a hold of Kevin's hand and pulled him along with her. There was no way that she was going to miss out on one of her favorite party foods.

Kevin hurried after her but not until he zipped out of the door and challenged her to a little race. "Last one there is a rotten egg!" he exclaimed as he sped down the stairs yelling pizza.

"Hey!" Becky called out from the top of the stairs, "that's not fair Kevin!" she exclaimed and as she ran down to the stairs she almost lost her footing and tripped. Due to her supporting herself upon the side rail of the stairs she caught herself before her whole body made contact with the steps. If that had happened, it would have left one nasty bruise.

"Careful now little lady," a voice suddenly came to her ears as she looked up and noticed a police officer that was standing by the entrance of the doorway. How long had this police officer been in the house? Becky was not even aware that there _was_ an officer or even his reason for being here. Hopefully no one was getting arrested...and if so, she hoped that Buzz was the culprit due to his mischievous nature.

Straightening herself on the last step of the stairs she gave the officer a nod of her head as an informal greeting and scurried away before she was questioned. Best to let the adults deal with such situations as opposed to teenagers.

* * *

In the dining room and kitchen the whole place was packed with the family eating, drinking, and talking over one another. Becky made her way around the pizza boxes trying to find which one was hers. Thank goodness the boxes were marked with the meats and vegetables that they contained or it would have taken a long time for Becky to find one. Sandwiched between a couple of pizza boxes was the one that Becky preferred. Nothing but mushrooms with extra cheese and light sauce. Slowly, she pulled out the pizza box from the others, hoping that the others would stay in place as opposed to falling over but the laws of physics said otherwise. The boxes of pizza slid from their place and onto the counter.

"Oops," Becky said as her eyes darted back and forth, hoping that no one noticed and to her relief, everyone else was busy with their food and speaking about the trip.

As for Kevin, the little youngster was walking about the dining room and kitchen trying to find his preferred pizza. "Did anyone order me a plain cheese?" he asked the others but it had fallen upon deaf ears.

Becky had herself settled onto the counter and she would have offered some of hers but she knew that Kevin was not a fan of mushrooms on his pizza. Would he notice if she pulled the mushrooms away from a couple of slices and gave it to him? That seemed like a plausible idea and with that in mind, Becky pulled away from the counter and picked out each and every single mushroom from one slice. "Hey Kev-" she called out but before she knew it, her little brother had slammed himself against Buzz and the older male was sent towards the counter, spilling the milk everywhere and onto the tickets and passports.

This caused a commotion between the others and the adults and all Becky could do was just sit there and stare at what was going on. "What...just...happened?" she whispered to herself as she then turned her head and noticed her mother pulling Kevin away and scolding him.

"He started it," Kevin accused Buzz, "he ate my pizza on purpose. He knows that I hate mushrooms, and sausages and olives-"

"Look at what you did you little jerk." Becky turned her head to Uncle Frank who had just uttered such a word. He was known to be a bit of a grouch but call his nephew a 'jerk?' That was something that she had never heard him say. The moment of silence seemed to last forever as everyone stared at the younger McCallister for his little misdeed. Even though what Kevin did was uncalled for, some of the other siblings didn't consider sharing any with Kevin. The whole family hadn't eaten a thing since lunchtime and Kevin was probably hungry but having his favorite food be taken away like that was uncalled for...especially from someone that Becky considered to be an older brother. He should've been setting a good example, not stuffing his face in pizza.

However, Kevin was the one who was punished for this and that punishment was being sent upstairs to the third floor. "Say goodnight Kevin," Kate said to her son as she pulled him away from the family.

"'Goodnight Kevin,'" the little one answered her back before they both disappeared from the dining room.

Becky looked from one family member to another as they had busied themselves with the accident that had occurred. _At least the milk won't spoil_ Becky said as she looked at the milk dripping from the counter.

"Aren't you gonna do anything?" Buzz gruffly asked Becky as she looked up at him. He looked upset but Becky didn't think that he should be the one feeling that way.

"Why me? You're the one who started it," Becky told him standing by her younger brother's words even though she had not witnessed what had happened. "If you'll excuse me, I have something to attend to." With that, she closed the lid of her pizza box and walked out of the kitchen and dining room.


	2. A Sibling Moment

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

As Becky made her away out of the dining room and onto the set of stairs, she noticed that the mysterious policeman that had been hovering over their entrance was gone. Becky found it strange as to why there would be a policeman within their home. Had he scoured out the whole neighborhood and asked if they were secure enough during the holidays? Was it only just for those going on vacation or also those who were staying at home? Whatever the case was, she was relieved that the policeman was gone. To her, it seemed like he just wanted to 'check' their house other than for the security reasons.

Making her way upstairs, it wasn't long until Becky came in contact with another set of shoes making their way downstairs. "Oh Becky..." the familiar, yet exhaustive voice said as her mother ran a hand over her own red locks and looked at her. The blue eyes that always held a lot of shine and life in them looked disappointed and very fatigued. Beck didn't blame her for feeling that way. All this planning for the trip was enough to make anyone feel exhausted especially being in a house full of people. However, all of the exhaustion and frustration shouldn't have been taken out on Kevin. "Where are you going with that?" Kate suddenly asked as she looked at the pizza box.

"To Kevin," Becky answered her mother, "he hasn't eaten since lunch and it's very late for him."

Kate let out a sigh, not upon hearing Becky's words but mostly because she had not been aware that her youngest son had not eaten for hours and she had only taken him upstairs and away from all of it. "Fine," she said to her, "but don't stay too long up there. We are all going to bed earlier than usual for tomorrow."

"Of course," the teen answered with a nod of her head and continued on her way to find Kevin. As she walked through the halls of the house, Becky passed by the bedroom that she shared with Linnie and heard a slight clatter onto the window. Walking inside her bedroom, she noticed a couple of rocks that were being thrown towards the window and that was a familiar sign to her. With a chuckle, she opened the window and looked down to see a young boy with dark curls who lived just down the street from the Murphy's.

"Good evening Freckles!" the young boy yelled towards Becky.

"Good evening Loser!" Becky shot back with a smirk as she looked down at him.

"Lucas would suffice!" the young male exclaimed back to her but a smile rested upon his lips as he stared over at the teen, "just visiting to tell you to have a good trip for tomorrow."

"Thanks," Becky said, "you too. Have fun in Montreal!"

"I will," Lucas said to her with an attempt at giving her a salute before he headed his way back to his house.

Becky watched as she noticed his figure get smaller throughout the distance before she shut the window. Lucas and Becky shared the same age of fourteen but Lucas was only a couple of months older than Becky. The great thing about being neighbors and friends was that the two would poke fun at each other and none would get offended. It even reminded her of the good times that she used to have with her brothers and sisters when she was young before they all grew and deemed everything to be too sensitive for their liking.

"Okay Kevin...where are you?" Becky whispered to herself as she came upon a door that led to the third floor. Gently shutting the door behind her, she made her way up the stairs until she noticed a small body that was curled into a ball on the bed. "Kevy?" she said as she called him by a nickname that she referred him to at times.

"Don't call me that," Kevin mumbled but refused to even look at his sister. A part of him had been silently weeping when his mother had left but the other part of him felt hurt that no one of this siblings said anything to defend him, especially Becky.

The teen tilted her head to the side as she looked at Kevin. He sounded upset but how was she to smooth things over? "I got you pizza?" she said it as a question as she held up the cardboard box that contained the pizza.

"I don't want any," the younger McCallister stubbornly said.

Well, that was quite the surprising answer. "Kevin McCallister? Not liking pizza? What is this...another dimension that I have fallen into?" Becky jokingly asked as she made her way around the bed and plopped herself onto it. "And I even took the time to bring this up to you." Even though it was originally a mushroom pizza, Becky had made sure to remove each and every one of them and consume them. Why waste good mushrooms?

Kevin's eyes traveled over to the pizza box that lied between them and with a sigh, he straightened himself into a sitting position. "Thanks I guess," he said as he opened the box and took one of the slices before gradually nibbling on it.

Becky looked as he took the slice as a small smile came to her lips. _At least he's eating_ she thought before her smiled then disappeared. "Kevin, what happened down there? I look down and next thing I know, milk is spilled all over the counter."

"Buzz started everything," Kevin began to protest, "he ate my pizza on purpose and he knows that I hate other toppings on them. I did what I did because I didn't want him to get away with it...and when I do something, I always get blamed for it."

Becky remained silent as she heard his words. Yes, that sounded about right. It was even a constant battle that she had between all of her siblings, Buzz included. "Can't say that he didn't deserve it," she responded and leaned onto one of the pillows that rested upon the bed.

"And mom sends me up here," Kevin said, "why me? Why not Buzz?"

Becky didn't have an answer to that. Maybe because Buzz wasn't considered to be at fault? Maybe because he had every right to eat cheese pizza? Maybe because he was considered mature? "I have no idea," Becky answered with a shake of her head before propping the side of her head on her hand and looking at Kevin. "But I think its better to just let it go from your mind. It's not going to matter anymore...especially tomorrow morning."

Kevin didn't say anything about that. This whole preparation for the trip was mostly a mood killer than anything that Kevin had expected and it made him less thrilled to even go to Paris. "Yeah, I guess so," he said to her with a small smile and took another slice of the pizza. He was really hungry and he didn't even notice the aroma of the mushroom that slightly lingered upon the warm pie.

"You don't seem too excited about it," Becky pointed out but she was going to try her hardest to make it as interesting of trip as she could for the young boy. "There's beautiful places to visit, restaurants, cafés...and they even let their pets in the restaurant."

"Too bad that we can't take our dog," Kevin said, "then again, mom and dad never thought it was necessary to make a passport for him."

"Oh he's a big, strong dog," Becky chuckled, "he'll take good care of himself and mom and dad made sure that he was comfortable in his kennel before they sent him over to a pet hotel. He needs to be taken care of while we're away even though he's big enough to do it himself," Becky narrated.

"Becky," Kevin said, "he doesn't always take care of himself," he said that matter-of-factly.

"Alright wise guy," Becky chuckled, "he doesn't _all the time_."

Chuckling, the young boy leaned over and placed his head onto her arm. She had at least tried to make him feel better and he was thankful for that. To him, it seemed that Becky was the only one who appreciated him and the others just hated him, even though that was not true, but all the punishments and blames that he was faced with he just felt like he was the black sheep of the whole family.

"Can you stay up here tonight?" Kevin asked her, "mom said that she's placing Fuller somewhere else and even if he wets the bed, I've gotten used to having someone," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

 _Fuller and his history of wetting beds_ Becky thought to herself. "Well, let's not have this bed be a victim," she said, "but we should change first into our pajamas first." Her pajamas were in her room but she would quickly throw them on and make her way back to her sibling.

"Alright," Kevin said as he reached for his in his drawer.

Becky left the room to allow him to change and made her way to her room. The pajamas were mindlessly thrown upon her bed as opposed to Linnie's neatly folded ones. She threw on her pajamas and made her way back over to the third floor and noticed Kevin finishing off the last slice of pizza.

"All done," Kevin announced as he took the empty cardboard box and place it elsewhere in the room. There was no trashcan where he could throw it in and he didn't want to go downstairs to face the others again. He made his way over to the bed and threw the covers off before snuggling into them and Becky made herself comfortable to the other side. "Thanks Becky," Kevin said to her, "for listening to me."

Once Becky's head had hit the pillow her eyes were halfway closed and when she heard Kevin's words, she let out a gentle questionable hum. "Anytime Kevy, anytime," she said with a yawn, "goodnight little brother."

"Goodnight," Kevin said as she turned his side on the other side of the bed, but he didn't go to sleep right away. He replayed the situation that had happened not to long ago and the distress that it had caused everyone, especially his mother. The best thing to do, and Kevin wasn't fond of doing it, was to apologize to everyone. With those thoughts in his mind, Kevin slowly shut his eyes and gradually went into a deep sleep.


	3. Breakfasts with Accidents

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

The night hours gradually began to come to end as the sun shined brightly into the room that Kevin was temporarily sharing with Becky. As the young blond boy awoke from his long hours of slumber he heard his older sister gently snoozing next to him. He was aware that she was someone who could sleep through any loud noise and not be disturbed from her sleep but he also felt that something was amiss. His family wasn't usually this quiet, especially in the hours of the morning. Kevin tip-toed out of the attic and into the halls of the house but the house was eerily silent.

 _Where is everyone?_ Kevin mentally inquired as he began to check from room and room, gently calling out for his mother, father, brothers, and sisters. However with each name that he called out, he got no answer in return and Kevin didn't know whether he ought to grow worried or just play along with this this situation, at which he considered to be a real joke that was being played.

* * *

On the third floor in the attic, Becky rolled over to her side and almost missed the edge of the bed where her body suddenly topped onto the floor. The impact of her body hitting the floor startled her as she jumped on her feet and looked up at the bed that was now empty. Looks like Kevin was already awake but she too also sensed that something was amiss. Just like Kevin, she found it odd that the house was quiet but in her perspective, better that way than being awaken by Buzz's yelling. After finishing up her personal duties in the bathroom, Becky then made her way down the stairs and to the kitchen where she found Kevin.

"Good morning," she yawned as she made her way over to the counter where her little brother sat and propped the side of her head on her hand.

Kevin greeted his sister in return with a 'morning' but it was cheery than usual. He seemed to be very happy about something that the older sibling wasn't able to figure out _what_ it exactly was.

"Well, well, well," Becky smirked, "somebody got up on the right side of the bed."

Kevin gave her another smile with a hint of mischievousness that was evident to Becky that he was probably up to something no good. "Guess what Becky?" he said to her, "I made my family disappear."

Becky rose an eyebrow when Kevin said that. "Yeah?" Becky said deciding to play along with this little game, or so she thought that it was a game. "And how did you do it?"

"Last night," Kevin said to her, "I wished that they would just disappear...right before you came into the room."

"If you wished that the whole family would disappear then why am I here?" Becky asked him but she knew that no one would just spontaneously disappear into thin air. "Wouldn't I have disappeared along with them?"

Kevin thought about that, but he had not been upset with Becky during that whole commotion from last night. She wasn't the one who was glaring at him like all the others were. "I'm glad that you weren't," he said to her, "otherwise I'd be home alone."

"I'm afraid that we're both home alone," Becky added with a sigh escaping her lips. "Wait a second..." she said as she perked up from her seat and looked at Kevin, "isn't their flight today? Didn't they go to the airport?"

"The cars are still in the garage," Kevin notified her. Before Becky had awoken, Kevin had checked the garage and the cars were still there. "Face it Becky, I made my family disappear."

"Kev-" Becky was about to begin but stopped herself. She wanted to tell him that no one disappears like that from just a small wish but then shook her head. "Alright then," she changed her mind with a small shake of her head, "they have disappeared and we're home alone. What're we supposed to do?"

"Easy," Kevin suddenly said without any hesitation in his voice, "we have the house to ourselves and we can do whatever we want without anyone stopping us."

 _Quite the tempting thing to do_ Becky thought to herself as she looked at her younger brother. His blue eyes shined brightly at this predicament and it seemed that he wanted to use it to his own advantage. As for Becky, the thought of it being just her and Kevin in the house with no one else seemed like a fun idea and it would also give her the opportunity to spend some time with him. A small chuckle escaped her lips as she reached over and ruffled Kevin's already messed up hair. "Alright, we'll have some fun...but right after we eat some breakfast."

"There's nothing to eat," Kevin said to her. "Even if I wanted some cereal we're out of milk."

After Kevin mentioned that, it came to Becky's mind that they had indeed run of eggs and milk. Eggs was one of the breakfast foods that she could easily make, aside from milk and cereal but any other cuisine, she couldn't. "I'd make you some pancakes if I could," Becky said to him with a shrug of her shoulders, "but it has eggs in it and I don't think you wouldn't want to try my cooking."

"And I prefer mom's pancakes," Kevin added.

"Well gee, thanks for that," Becky sarcastically said to him that caused Kevin to let out a little chuckle. "What if we go and eat out?" she then suggested. "There's this pancake house not too far from the house and I have saved a little bit of money from my allowance."

"Sounds good to me," Kevin said to her as the side of lips turned into a little smile. "I'll go and get ready." With that, he hopped off of his seat and headed upstairs to change.

* * *

The morning was rather cold as both Kevin and Becky walked down to the pancake house. It was only a fifteen minute walk but it was a rather good exercise for the both of the McCallister siblings. "Quite the walk from home," Kevin said as he and Becky headed inside the pancake house. Usually, the place would be full of people but due to the holidays it seemed to be less full than usual.

"At least the food will come out faster," Becky said as she smiled down to Kevin before they were taken to their assigned table along with the menus that had a selection of choices of pancakes as well as sides. Becky slide inside the booth and took off her coat, hat, and gloves and got herself comfortable. The inside of the pancake house was hot and it smelled of freshly brewed coffee. _I think I'll go with that_ Becky thought to herself as the thought of a hot drink that she wanted for herself. _Mom and dad don't have to know_.

Meanwhile, Kevin's eyes scanned over the food items that were on the menu until his eyes fell onto one of the choices. "That sounds good to me," he said as he set down his menu and looked at Becky. "What are you getting?"

"The strawberry waffle sounds like a good choice," Becky said to Kevin, "what about you?"

"Regular pancakes with eggs and bacon on the side...and some chocolate milk," Kevin said to her.

"Don't blame you on the chocolate part," Becky chuckled at that and then looked up as a waitress stood by their table to take their order. She held a pencil within her hand and quickly scribbled down the desired breakfast selection that Becky narrated to her. "And some coffee and hot chocolate to start with," Becky finished and with a smile, the waitress took their menus and walked away.

Kevin looked over at Becky and rose an eyebrow. "Coffee, hmm?"

"I think I really need it," Becky said as she placed a hand over her mouth and stifled a yawn. Even when she got a decent amount of sleep she was still tired.

"You know that mom and dad don't let you drink coffee," Kevin pointed out.

"But remember," Becky said as she pointed at him, keeping up with this little game, "they have disappeared, so they won't know a thing about it...until they decide to reappear again."

As for Kevin, he did not wish for them to reappear anytime soon. Why should they, even after all the blame that they had put him through? "Until then," Kevin smirked, "it'll be fun all day and all night long for us."

"Just don't have _too_ much fun," Becky chuckled as she looked at him, "we still want the house in one piece."

A few moments later, the bell on the door was rung as two other customers entered but at the same time, the waitress arrived to Becky and Kevin with two white mugs where one was filled with hot chocolate. The other white mug was empty and it was set down before Becky and filled with freshly brewed coffee. "Thanks," she thanked the waitress as she then took some cream and sugar and added it into the mug. After stirring the coffee, she took a sip and let the hot liquid stream down her throat. It was sweet, comforting, and really hot...enough to make her feel warm. From across the table, she noticed Kevin staring at her. "What?" she asked.

"Can I try some?" Kevin asked her.

"What? Coffee?" Becky asked him, "oh no, no, no," she shook her head at him.

"Come on," Kevin said as he tried to reach over the mug with his little hands and tried to grab it. "Just a little taste."

"N to the O," Becky refused.

"When you say it like that it doesn't sound cool at all," Kevin said to her but he was not giving up until he had a sip of that coffee. "Plus, mom and dad won't know about it right?"

"The answer is still 'no.'"

Kevin clicked his tongue against his teeth. "And here I thought you were one of the cool siblings."

"I am cool," Becky shot back at him when he said that, "I bought you pizza last night didn't I? And don't make a commotion, everyone is staring," she said as she noticed that some of the eyes from the customers were a little bit onto them.

"Pizza and coffee are two different things," Kevin said and with one more attempt, he tried to reach over to mug but instead of grabbing a hold of the handle, he took a hold of the mug and the hot sensation that was radiating from the mug went to his fingers and the young McCallister dropped it on the table. "Ouch," he said as he waved his hand in the air to soothe the pain.

Becky gasped when the coffee toppled over and spilled all over her green hooded sweatshirt and the heat from the coffee made it all the more worse. "Kevin!" she exclaimed as she looked up at her brother with a look of anger upon her eyes.

Kevin slowly slid off from the table and sank back into his seat. He hadn't mean to do it, the mug just slipped from his grasp and fell over. "I'm sorry," he mumbled as he looked at Becky with an apologetic look before looking to his side, feeling a little bit embarrassed that she had yelled at him.

The teenager let out a sigh. The outburst was uncalled for and she hated the way that some of the customers were looking at them for their outburst, especially one blue-eyed man with curls who sat a couple of tables away from them. "Its fine," Becky said as she stood up from the booth. "I'll be back in a bit," she said to Kevin as she let the young boy alone on the booth before heading over to the restroom. Once she got inside, she took off her green sweatshirt and with a dry paper towel, she held it towards the sink and moistened it with some water and began to scrub the coffee smear on her sweatshirt. At least the coffee wasn't able to completely seep through the other shirt that she was wearing underneath, otherwise she would have been walking around the pancake house with a huge smear on her stomach.

"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought," Becky said to herself, mainly to her reflection. But accidents happen and she couldn't stay upset with Kevin for too long. She folded the green sweatshirt and draped her over her arm and walked out of the restroom, before she accidentally collided with a man, that shared the same height as her, who was coming out of the men's room.

"Watch where you're going," the man gruffly said to her as he gave her a brief look before walking away.

Becky furrowed her brows at that. "Someone's a Grinch," she mumbled under her breath but did she did not give it another thought. She made her way over to Kevin's booth and noticed that food was already on the table.

Kevin had not touched his food until Becky had arrived and when she did, he was famished enough to began eating right away. "You okay?" he asked her when he noticed a slight smear on her white shirt.

"I'll get over it and live," Becky answered Kevin with a wink and a gentle smile upon her lips, indicating that she didn't hold a grudge against the accident.

With a smile of relief, both Kevin and Becky ate their breakfast in silence.


	4. Movie Scares

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

The snow crunched beneath Becky's and Kevin's boots as the two siblings finally headed their way home after having their fill of breakfast at the pancake house. Other than the coffee mishap, breakfast had been very enjoyable and one where Becky thought she wasn't going to be able to eat until after twelve in the afternoon. The strawberry waffle had been rather heavy with all that added maple syrup, whipped cream, and strawberries but it was decent enough to hold anyone over before lunchtime. As for Kevin, his breakfast had been like a banquet in a way with the stacks of pancakes, sunny side up eggs, and crispy bacon along with the hot chocolate. Such a meal made the eight year old feel like taking a nap but the thought of the house being just to him and Becky broke him away from the nap and made him all the more excited. Now as they were heading back home, he knew what he was going to do. The neighbors were gone to their holidays and he could be as loud as he wanted to, go to bed when he wished to, and just have fun. He only hoped that his older sister would join in on the fun for as long as it would last.

It wasn't long until both of the McCallisters came upon their home. Becky placed her hand around the doorknob and opened the door. "Home sweet home," she said as the warmth of the home took over.

Kevin took lead as he ran inside, not even bothering to take off his boots that were soaked in snow. Becky was about to call out after him to not run with the boots in the house but it then occurred to her once more, no grown-ups were in the house. Becky would usually leave her boots inside the closet but this time she threw off her coat, scarf, and mittens, and left them in a pile by the doorway.

"I'll pick them up later," she mumbled to herself as she looked at the pile of clothes. When that 'later' was she didn't know but what she did know was that both rules one and two had been broken and that made her feel rebellious.

As for Kevin, he was enjoying his freedom a little too much. All that energy that he had obtained from that breakfast and the hot chocolate, he was spending it on running around the house screaming, "I'm free!" When Becky heard his yelling, she couldn't make out what her brother was saying and with a concerned look upon her face, she made her way over to the dining room where she saw her brother running around the table.

"Come on Becky join me! We're free!" he exclaimed and ran in circles around his sister. All Becky could do in the meantime was just chuckle as she let her brother run around her and about the house.

"How much sugar did they put in that hot chocolate?" she asked as she then saw Kevin running up the stairs on the second floor where the other rooms were causing Becky to follow after him. She needed to change into a different set of clothes aside from what she was wearing but as she passed through the halls, she noticed that Kevin was in Buzz's room looking through the many items that the older brother of the house kept in a chest. "Snooping around Buzz's items?" she asked as she peeked in from the doorway.

"Yup," Kevin said as he threw a magazine that he was looking at over his shoulder, "cool firecrackers, I'll save these for later," he said as he took the packages of the firecrackers and put them in his pockets.

"You can save those as long as you don't use them for something illegal," Becky said to him before she walked away and headed to her room. Why ever Buzz would keep a firecrackers in his room, she didn't even want to know the answer to. Once in her bedroom, Becky changed into a white woolen shirt and comfortable pajamas. It was a combination that if Linnie were to see, she would deem it as strange. As for Becky, she didn't care so much about it as long as she felt comfortable in them and for the time being, she did feel comfortable. "Ah," she let out a sigh and fell upon her bed, gently closing her eyes and enjoying the quietness that surrounded the home. It was nice to just feel that calmness as opposed to the usual bustling activity that took place.

* * *

"Becky?" a voice suddenly came into the room and shook her. Beck'y eyes suddenly snapped open as she gasped and stood up from her bed. It was only Kevin and she let out a sigh of relief. "Don't tell me that I was asleep," she said.

"You were," Kevin went ahead and told her.

"How long?" she asked.

"A good couple of minutes," Kevin replied, "but you slept through me target practicing with Buzz's rifle," he smiled mischievously at that. As Becky had been unknowingly snoozing, Kevin had taken a couple of sport figurines and held them by the laundry chute and he shot at them.

This however came as a shock to Becky and she shook her head at her sibling. "You could've been hurt Kevin."

Kevin gave her a look when she said that. He hated being looked down as a child all the time, even though he was just eight years old. "I was being careful," Kevin assured her, "and I know how a good couple of items work around the house, so I know how to handle Buzz's rifle."

 _Sassy aren't we?_ Becky thought to herself as she looked at her brother. "Just looking out for my favorite little brother," she said as she reached over and ruffled his hair with her hand, causing Kevin to pout and move his head away from her. He didn't like it when she did that but he never told her to stop from doing it. "Now after your little fun of snooping around Buzz's items, what do you want to do?"

There were quite the selection of things that they could do. Play a board game, make Christmas ornaments from their father's new fish hooks, or..."watch a move," Kevin answered her. Now that the others were gone they had the television to themselves to watch whatever they wished. Due to the amount of the people in the house, each sibling fought over of who wanted to watch what first. As for Becky, she didn't prefer the television as much as she preferred reading but a good movies was needed now and them.

"Right," Becky said to him with a smile, "you go and pick a movie and I'll come right downstairs to join you."

"I'll make a sundae too," Kevin said as he quickly headed downstairs and into the kitchen. He pulled a chair towards the refrigerator and pulled out whatever type of ice cream that he could find. "I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this," he said as he set the chocolate and vanilla ice cream on the counter and then took out whatever other sweet treats he could find to throw on top of them. It was a bit of a messy recipe but to Kevin, he knew that it was going to be delicious enough for both him and Becky to enjoy. "Becky it's ready!" he called out.

"Coming, coming," Becky said as she made her way down to stairs and to the kitchen. Her eyes briefly bounced over to the mess that had been made on the counter and upon seeing that, she was glad that no one else would see it. "Whoa...alright then," she said and took the bowl that was filled with heaping scoops of ice cream, marshmallows, and chocolate.

"And I know just the movie to watch," Kevin said as he took his bowl and made his way to the living room. His fingers ran through the selection of cassettes that were displayed in front of him and the one that caught his attention that he had seen the other older kids in the house watch, was the one that interested him the most. A movie called _Angles with Filthy Souls_ which was comprised as a black and white film and to what Becky could understand was a gangster film.

"Oh," Becky said as she suddenly realized the movie, "they were watching this movie yesterday," she said as she began to eat the sundae that Kevin had made for her. She was not too enthusiastic watching such films that involved gangsters and violence but watching it with her younger sibling was better than doing something alone, which was something usual for her for the most part.

Kevin on the other hand was stuffing his face with the sweet dessert as he watched the movie progress. It had been a rather slow movie at first but the climax was about to take place as one of the characters walked into an office where a man was sitting. "Guys we're eating junk and watching rubbish, you'd better come out and stop us!" Kevin suddenly yelled.

Becky briefly looked over at Kevin. There was no way that the family who had mysteriously 'disappeared' would be hearing Kevin's words. "They're not here Kevin," she mumbled under her breath but the eight year old was just too entranced into the movie to even listen to Becky. The teen continued to watch the movie but the tension that was taking place between the two characters made her predict that something terrible was going to happen and upon that, the man who was sitting by the table pulled out a rifle and pointed it to the other. "Kevin you don't want to-" she gasped as she was interrupted by the sudden gunshot that screamed out of the television.

Immediately, Kevin hid his eyes behind his hands and tried to block the scene from his sight. It had gotten too much for the eight year old and this was the moment that he realized the reason as to why such a movie was not allowed for underage children. Becky on the other hand was just too shocked the even respond when that scene when she had witnessed the brutal execution of the other man.

Kevin suddenly paused the movie and screamed, "MOM!"

Becky did a double take as she looked at a frightened Kevin. How could she have allowed something like this to happen? She was the older one and she should've known that such a film wasn't allowed for Kevin, no matter how much Kevin insisted upon seeing it. "Okay, I think that's enough of this movie," she said as she hopped off the couch, grabbed the remote from Kevin, and shut off the television. After doing so, she turned back around and faced Kevin seeing how frightened he looked. "Oh Kevin," she gently said as she walked over and wrapped her arms around him in an embrace.

Kevin wrapped his arms around her neck and tightly hugged her. He felt truly frightened from the movie and all he needed was some comfort. His mother wasn't here to give it to him but he trusted Becky enough that she would keep him safe and away from the terrible man that was once on the television. "That was horrible," Kevin shook as his hug tightened around Becky.

Becky had never seen Kevin had anyone so tightly before and all she could do was just comfort him and keep the recent memory from that movie away from him. "He was a horrible man wasn't he?" Becky said as she looked at Kevin, "I took care of him for you. He's gone and he won't come back again," she said to him.

As comforting as Becky tried to be, Kevin knew that the man would be back. He was in that cassette after all. "Thanks Becky," he mumbled as he kept his head buried into her chest and made sure to keep her sister close to him.

After all, he wouldn't want her to disappear.


	5. Mr Grinch and Scrooge

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

After the slight movie scare that had occurred, an idea had some to Becky's mind. Instead of watching movies that had nothing to do with Christmas, why not watch movies that did? It would be a good way to get into the Christmas spirit and also get both Kevin's and Becky's mind away from that frightful film. After Kevin had gone into the kitchen to clean up the mess that he had made with the ice cream, Becky headed downstairs to the basement where she knew that's where the family kept some old films. A big brown cardboard box had the word 'MOVIES' written on it with bold black letter and Becky slowly reached over and pulled it off the shelf and into the ground. The box had been in the basement untouched for quite a long time due to the collection of dust on top.

Becky ran a hand over the box, causing the dust to fly about in the atmosphere and slightly tickle her nose in the process. "Achoo!" she sneezed along with a sniffle before opening the box and looking at the selection of Christmas movies that had been encased in the box for a long time. _A Christmas Carol_ was a good choice. It had it's morals and life lessons to it. _It's a Wonderful Life_ was another good film, though Becky had never watched it before. Suddenly her hand fell touched another cassette and a smile made it's way to her lips. _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ was quite the classic, especially in the McCallister household. With these three films in mind, Becky took them with her and left the box exactly in the same position where it was, for she did not bother to waste anytime to put it back in its rightful spot.

"Kevin!" she called out as she made her way upstairs. "I found what we could watch!" When she got no answer from the other, Becky assumed that he didn't hear her or had disappeared upstairs, but the last thing that she expected was to see Kevin on the top of the stairs positioning his sled towards the door. "Kevin?" she asked as she squinted to her brother when she spotted him. "Wh-What are you doing?"

Kevin was one who liked to have fun but also take risks at that. "I'm doing what everyone else does during the winter," Kevin answered and threw his red scarf over his shoulder and got himself onto the sled.

Becky's eyes widened as she realized what her brother was about to do. "Kevin are you crazy? You can't-" she was cut short when the sled tipped forward from the top of stairs and Becky shot out an arm towards him as if that was going to stop him. "Don't you dare go down the stairs! No!" she exclaimed but even her words did have hold the power to stop the sled from tipped forward.

Kevin felt the impact of the sled making contact with the stairs as it quickly slid down the stairs, out the door, and into the snow. The sled then made contact with the pavement until sliding upon the soft bed of snow before coming to a halt. Kevin shook himself from that slight excitement but he wasn't even paying attention to Beck'y frantic scolding as his sister ran out the door and towards her brother.

The moment that Becky arrived over to him she gripped his shoulders and turned him around. "Kevin are you out of your mind?!" she exclaimed as she looked at him with an expression that beheld both anger and worry. "You could've been hurt!"

"But I wasn't," Kevin answered her as if it was just a normal day and what he had done was less dangerous than anything else that he had done before. "It was actually kind of fun."

"I don't care how much fun it was!" Becky exclaimed. She couldn't believe that Kevin wouldn't consider the consequences of what could have happened. The last thing that she wanted was to send her brother to the hospital with a broken body part. "You could've been hurt! Do you realize how dangerous such a thing like that is?"

Kevin frowned when Becky's temper got the better of her. Sometimes she was Becky and at other times, she acted like she was Kate and mothered him. "I know," Kevin said as he looked at her, "otherwise I wouldn't have done it if it was dangerous."

Becky gaped when Kevin said that. It was like talking to a brick wall and all the teen could do was throw her arms in the air and let them fall to her sides. "You need to take some risks yourself, you know," she then looked over when Kevin began to speak to her, "otherwise, why live your life in a shell?"

 _Did he...did he just give me a life lesson_? Becky thought to herself. What Kevin had said was true for Becky did live a sheltered type of life as opposed to her brothers and sisters. While they were out with friends, Becky was in her room hiding behind a book or just spending a great amount of her time overstudying for coursework, even though she had learned the information well enough to get a decent grade on a test.

"Perhaps I like my shell," Becky said as she patted Kevin's shoulder.

Kevin knelt down and picked up the rope that hung from the sled before he began to pull it in the direction of the house. "That's a very boring life Becky," he said. "There's so much anyone can do. You just have to use it to your advantage...kind of like I'm doing right now," he smirked a little mischievously at that.

"Yes well, sliding down a flight of stairs is not my sort of excitement," Becky said as she followed after her brother and over to the stairs of their front porch. She suddenly stopped short when she heard something scarping against the pavement of a driveway and slowly, she turned her head. A house over from the McCallisters, was the home of where an old man whom the others, mainly her siblings, referred to him as Old Man Marley lived and every winter he always walked about the streets throwing salt onto the ice covered sidewalks and streets. Becky found it considerate of him to be looking after other neighbors but he was also quite the strange man in her eyes. He wasn't someone who talked to others or even greeted others and that fact that she had listened to Buzz's tale about him being a serial killer did not make it comforting at all towards Becky.

Suddenly the old man stopped his shoveling and looked up, feeling that a pair of eyes were onto him. Becky stood frozen in her place, not knowing how to react. _Wave, say something, run_! she thought to herself but she felt frozen in place and the eerie silence that took place between them felt like it was lasting for long hours as opposed to seconds. Her concentration was suddenly broken away when Becky noticed a blue van with big dark red words written across it as it slid down to the neighborhood.

"Becky you coming?" Kevin suddenly yelled from within the house as the teen looked back at the door. Without saying a word to Old Man Marley, Becky quickly headed into the house and shut the door behind her with a lock. Perhaps staying in for the time being was better than being outside.

Kevin was already into the living room as he looked at the three cassettes that Becky had dug up from the box down in the basement. He rose an eyebrow when he noticed that two of them were films that he wasn't so keen on watching but _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ was one of his favorites. "We should watch this one," Kevin said as he held up the cassette in front of Becky.

"And not the others?" Becky asked as she looked at the cassette.

"But those ones are boring," Kevin replied and let his arm fall to his side while he continued to clutch onto the cassette.

Becky let out a playful gasp when Kevin said that as if she was offended by his opinion towards one of the films. " _A Christmas Carol_ is not boring," she said with a shake of her head and placed her hands on her hips. "It's a film that features morals and life lessons and it shows how one should appreciate what they're surrounded by than asking for more than they already have."

Kevin squinted when she said that. "Grinch," he mumbled under his breath, "fine we'll watch that and _then_ _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_."

"If I'm a Grinch then you're a Scrooge," Becky said as she playfully tapped his nose but Kevin only ran a hand over the tip of his nose where she tapped him. "Am not!" he pouted and looked at her.

"Too late!" Becky said, "you called me a Grinch first, Mr. Scrooge!"

"Stop it!"

"Nope!" Becky exclaimed as she then took off upstairs, causing Kevin to chase after her. "Scrooge, Scrooge, Scrooge, Scrooge!"

"Not, not, not, not!" Kevin yelled back as he continued to chase after Becky. "Get back here!"

"Gotta catch me first!" his sister yelled back as she slid to the nearest room that she could find, which happened to be her parent's bedroom.

As she was about to hide under the bed, Kevin threw himself into the room and pounced over to Becky and grabbed her around the waist with his arms, sending the both of them upon the unmade bed where her parents had slept before they had 'disappeared.' "Gotcha!" he said, almost out of breath from all of that chasing but a smile was etched upon his features.

"Ahh," Becky pretended to yell and squirmed under his light grip, "the Grinch has been caught by Scrooge!"

"I'm not going to let you steal Christmas!" Kevin said and dropped his voice an octave lower, pretending to imitate a redeemed Scrooge, "now bring back all those presents, or the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future will haunt you forever."

"No, I hate ghosts," Becky struggled to break free but then just gave up and smiled up at Kevin. "Guess what? You beat the Grinch," she smiled which caused the eight year old to smile upon hearing that.

Kevin jumped off from the bed, grabbed her arm, and pulled her up. "C'mon let's go and have something to eat and then watch them."

"Right behind you," Becky said as she followed Kevin back downstairs and into the kitchen. From outside, Becky noticed that the sun was gradually beginning to set and she wondered how quickly the day had gone by that would soon be replaced by a blanket of darkness. "The day just flew by," Becky commented before opening up the refrigerator and looking inside to see what they could have. "What do you wish to have?"

Kevin peeked into the fridge and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he replied and looked over at Becky. "How about something sweet?"

"Again?" Becky asked, "but we just had a whole plate of ice cream."

"Which was a while ago," Kevin said. "Plus, we can have some of the cookies that mom only brings out for visitors.

"You mean the ones with the strawberry filling?" Becky asked as her eyes shined up at that. She loved those cookies and she would take as many as she could until her mother gave her the infamous 'look.'

"And," Kevin tapped his chin and rolled his eyes over to a cupboard where he had last seen his mother stash them. "They're right up there," he said as he pointed the cupboard above them.

Becky didn't give it another though and she reached over to the cupboard and pulled out the package that contained those delicious cookies. "And grab every single sweet thing up there while you're at it," Kevin said.

 _So that means...everything_ Becky thought to herself and grabbed as many sweet treats that were in front of her vision. There were marshmallows, more cookies, and various types of candy that ranged from candy canes to chocolate. "I think we're both going to have a sugar rush," Becky said as she as she looked at the selection of junk food that were sprawled in front of their eyes.

"But we get to eat what we want," Kevin said and grabbed a handful of the items and smirked at Becky, "and no one can stop us." On that note, he left the kitchen and sprawled the items on a table within the living room.

Becky followed after him and plopped the other half of the items onto the table whilst clutching onto the package of cookies. This one, she was not going to be too keen on sharing but with Kevin, she was willing to make an exception. Perhaps there were some good perks at being home alone and Becky was glad that both she and her little brother were using them to their advantage.


	6. Christmas Carols and Burglaries

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

Kevin took the liberty and inserted the _A Christmas Carol_ cassette inside the VHS before plopping back down on his seat. Even though the movie was not one of his first choices, he was glad that he was at least spending some time with his sister. The movie suddenly began with the usual introduction of the music and introducing the actors and actresses and the characters that were portrayed. As the music took over the silence in the living room, Kevin leaned his head back in his seat while Becky kept her eyes glued on the television while her hand searched around the package for a piece of cookie.

The only noise that gave Kevin any fascination throughout the whole movie was the crinkling noise of the cookie package that Becky was making. The movie that was being shown was in black and white, a classic film for the most part, but the dialogue to Kevin was very monotonous and it made him let out a yawn. _Why must we watch this_? he thought to himself. At his age, he just wanted to watch a good cartoon as opposed to watching a movie that Becky liked.

"How long is this movie again?" Kevin suddenly spoke up when they were ten minutes into the movie. He felt like it took forever to get through the past ten minutes.

"More than an hour...I think," Becky replied and bit into a strawberry jam filled cookie.

 _Great_ Kevin thought as he turned his eyes over to the television screen and looked at the characters interacting with one another. Now twelve minutes into the movie and Kevin was already feeling like he was about to sleep, but he didn't want to fall asleep. He wanted to watch Christmas movies, but the one's that bored him.

As for Becky, she was too entranced into the movie and she watched it with plenty of interest...all up until the moment where it featured the Ghost of Christmas Past coming to haunt Scrooge. "Look, look," she said as she pointed to the television screen, catching Kevin's attention, "it's the first ghost."

 _Big deal_ Kevin bitterly thought but kept his inner thoughts to himself and looked at the television. Even if this movie involved Christmas ghosts, it didn't spark any sort of interest to him. "Is the movie over yet?" he asked as he leaned forward and grabbed one of the sweet treats that they had retrieved from the cupboard.

"Almost," Becky answered, "all he has to do is just get past two more ghosts and the film will be over."

"Can we forward it at least?" Kevin asked her, "it's dragging on so long."

Was that whining that she was hearing? Typical for an eight year old to whine to his fourteen year old sister, Becky only gave him a shrug of her shoulders. "We'll watch it some other time," she said as she firmly pressed a button the remote and stopped it from proceeding any further. It was quite the firm press that she had done on the button of the remote but she was a little peeved with Kevin and the way that he acted.

"Can I put in my-" Kevin was about to ask but Becky immediately interrupted him.

"Yes!" she answered, knowing well enough what he was going to ask.

Kevin narrowed his eyes at her, definitely noticing that something was amiss and he only shook his head at her. "You don't have to get so defensive."

"Who is getting defensive?" Becky asked as she threw her arms in the air.

"You are," Kevin said as he turned to look at her before going towards the VHS, ejecting the cassette, and putting in the one with the Grinch. "It's just a movie. You will have another chance to watch it."

"Gee, thanks mom I didn't know," Becky said and rolled her eyes at Kevin's mini lecture.

Kevin then whipped around and gave his sister a glare. He didn't want to be compared to anyone that lived in the house but that was not one of the reasons as to why he looked so upset. After that movie scare that he experienced, he had really wished that his mother was there to comfort him and when Becky sarcastically said 'mom,' he didn't appreciate it. "You're not funny," he said with a slight pout upon his lips.

"That's what everyone says," Becky mumbled under head breath and looked at the television that began to play the new movie that Kevin had just put in. She was still upset that her own movie had to be cut short but it was the price that every McCallister family paid with one another. As the movie played at the character of the Grinch came into the screen, Becky couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle at seeing him. "Reminds me of the man I saw today in the morning."

"What man?" Kevin curiously asked and turned his head to look at his sister.

"Some guy at the pancake house," Becky explained, "he was as tall as me and had the same attitude as that guy," she emphasized and pointed to the television where the Grinch was. "I accidentally bumped into him and he acted as if I purposefully stepped on his foot."

Kevin chuckled when Becky said that. During the time of the holidays, there were those who were joyous and loved everything about Christmas and then there was the other handful who hated Christmas. Kevin couldn't understand as to why anyone would hate Christmas. It was the most wonderful time of the year and that didn't include just the presents. "He needed some Christmas cheer," Kevin added, "like some good Christmas music."

"Not _the_ Christmas music," Becky said as she hit her forehead with her hand. "They've been playing the same songs ever since the middle of November."

A mischievous smile suddenly came upon Kevin's lips as he looked at Becky. "Oh like... _deck the halls with bought of holly_!"

"Kevin no!" Becky exclaimed.

" _Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la_."

"Let's fa-la-la-not," Becky said to him.

"Because _Santa Claus is coming to town_ with _Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose_!" Kevin continued to sing.

"They can go to another town!"

Kevin blinked when Becky said that. " _Y_ _ou're rotten...Mr. Grinch_." Coincidentally, that same music began to play on the television as the Grinch was taking the star from the Christmas tree before grinning to the television.

"Okay Kevin, stop it," Becky said.

However, the eight year old was just having a great time poking fun at his sister and annoying her with some Christmas songs and he wasn't going to stop anytime soon. " _You're a_ -" Kevin's singing was cut short by a gasp when he noticed two shadows passing by the window of the living room.

Seeing that look of fright upon Kevin's face, Becky suddenly became concerned. "Kevin what's wrong?" she asked him.

Kevin did not answer Becky right away. He kept his eyes glued to the windows after those two shadows disappeared. He even heard their voices loud and clear as to where they were going and that's when he became alert. "Becky," he slowly said as he then turned his eyes towards his sister, "there's someone here."

Becky stared at Kevin when he said that for a mere second. "What are you talking about?" she asked but Kevin did not stay too long to answer her question.

Kevin jumped off of the couch and started to turn on every light in the house whilst Becky stared in confusion at what he was doing. How could anyone be in their property? Wasn't the whole neighborhood away on vacation? She tore away from her own seat and followed after Kevin when he made his way over to the basement and she watched as he turned on the light.

Kevin had gotten in there just in time for he heard the voices of two grown men standing in front of the entrance door of the basement.

"They were supposed to leave this morning!" one of the voices exclaimed before the footsteps retreated away into the distance.

Becky's eyes widened when she heard that voice. "Thieves?" she whispered as she continued to stare to the door. Would they come back again? She turned and placed her hands on Kevin's shoulders. "Kevin go upstairs and stay there."

"What about you?" he asked and looked up at Becky. He looked tremendously frightened and all Becky wanted to do was just hug him tightly and assure him that everything was fine.

"I'm going to go and see who they are," she explained to Kevin.

"N-" Kevin was about to protest but Becky gently pushed him along to go and hide.

As Kevin headed upstairs to hide, Becky looked back at the door and quickly approached it. Opening the door, she climbed the steps and looked about to see if she could find someone...or even one catch a glimpse of one of those thieves before they disappeared.

"I seriously thought you said that they were gone, Harry," one of the voices whispered into the night and Becky perked up her ears when she heard it. Slowly, she tried to follow the direction to where the voice was but it was difficult to do so whilst her slippers crunched the snow beneath her feet.

"That's what the lady of the house told me, Marv!" another voice snapped to the other before the car door was slammed shut.

Remaining hidden from sight, Becky heard a van pulling away from the driveway but due to the darkness that had taken over the sky, Becky wasn't able to make out what sort of car it was...but for one thing, she had gotten the names of those two men who had almost broken into the house. Harry and Marv. How they looked like? Becky didn't have the slightest clue about that so for the time being, it was nothing but useless information and calling the police was not an option due to the phone lines that had been damaged from the storm last night.

Taking a deep breath, Becky let out a sigh and looked at her breath coming out of her mouth and into the coldness that surrounded her. There was nothing else to witness and it was best to head back before Kevin got more worried and before she caught a cold. As she turned to walk back inside, something sharp struck the bottom of her foot. "Ooh ow!" Becky said and lifted her slipped. Below her foot, she noticed a small object that had been slightly sunk into the snow and she knelt down and took a hold of it. The object was a ring and a beautifully round diamond. Becky took the liberty and tried it on her finger but it was too big for her finger. Could it be that one of the thieves must have accidentally dropped it? Where had they gotten it from? With all of those questions in her head, Becky thought it was best to just keep a hold of the ring and return it to the rightful owner if she ever met them.

* * *

Kevin was hiding upstairs and under his parents's bed. The last thing that he had expected to happen was to see those two figures stalking around the property of the house. The only reason why those two thieves were here was for one thing only and Kevin knew that it was. They wanted to steal from their home but Kevin was glad that he had scared them off before the thieves succeeded with their plan. However, as Kevin awaited for his sister to came back, the longer it seemed to him and he didn't know whether his sister had seen them and had gotten away or if they had taken her with them.

"Becky where are you?" he whispered against the light brown wooden floors as he kept his ears open for any noise downstairs. He was too petrified to even move from his spot but he suddenly perked up when he heard the door opening from downstairs and hearing the lock click into place.

"Kevin?" Becky began to call and climbed up the stairs to the second floor.

"In here," Kevin called and slid from underneath the bed and into view. Becky went over and helped him off the ground and took a seat onto the bed. "Did you see them?" he asked her.

"No," Becky shook her head, "I wasn't even able to see their faces, but I was able to hear their names. Mark and Henry," she said before raising an eyebrow, seeming to have forgotten what their names actually were. "Wait, that's not right. Was it Henry and Mark?"

"Mark and Henry, Henry and Mark, that's not enough to help us see what they look like," Kevin said as he looked at Becky, "there's plenty of people named like that."

"I know, I know," Becky said and let out a sigh, "it was too dark to see them and I tried to stay out of sigh at the same time but I did find something that they stole," she said and pulled out the ring that she had found in the snow and held it at the palm of her hand.

Kevin reached over held the ring between his fingers. "I wonder where they got it from?" he asked, "it almost looks like a ring that mom wears."

"A wedding ring?" Becky rose an eyebrow and gently took the ring back. "I don't know from whom they got it, but we have to make sure and keep it safe just in case the owner comes along."

"I think that's best," Kevin nodded his head and looked away from Becky. He was still feeling uneasy about what had happened and he hoped that these two thieves wouldn't come back again. He wanted to be sure that they wouldn't come back but after experiencing such a surprise, he didn't know what to make of it.

Sensing her brother's distress, Becky put the ring into one of her pockets of her pants and looked at Kevin. "Those stupid robbers ruined our little fun didn't they," Becky said as she looked at Kevin, "shame on them. I certainly don't wish them a Merry Christmas," she added, trying to help Kevin get back into that playful mood that he had before.

"Let's hope that they get run over by a reindeer," Kevin added with a chuckle.

Becky chuckled and ruffled Kevin's hair with her hand before wrapping her arms around him and holding him into a gentle embrace. She felt Kevin wrapping his arms around her and smiled.

"I'm glad you're here Becky," Kevin whispered and held her tightly.


	7. Candy From a Stranger

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

The next day, Becky woke up to a quiet morning as she felt the rays of the sun hit her upon the eyes. She had been sleeping in her bedroom while Kevin had made himself comfortable in his parents' bed. Due to the events from last night, Becky had made sure to double check every single door and lock around the house just to be safe. Even though the siblings weren't harmed by those two burglars, Becky hadn't felt at ease ever since she and Kevin had experienced that near burglary. Kevin on the other hand had gotten through it a bit easily than Becky had but even he had his moments of feeling that fright.

"Good morning!" a voice suddenly yelled as Becky snapped open her eyes and then found Kevin jumped over to her bed.

"Whoa!" Becky exclaimed. She was not expecting such a wake-up call but she was glad to see her younger brother before her eyes and happier than he was from the events of last night.

The eight year old giggled as he snuggled closer to his sister. "Come on, we need to get up! I just remembered that I need to buy a toothbrush."

Becky rubbed the sleep off of her eyes and sat up in her bed. "What's wrong with the old one?" she asked and looked at Kevin. She noticed that he hadn't done his morning routine yet for his blond hair was still ruffled and he was still in his pajamas. "Don't tell me that it fell in the toilet," she said.

Kevin shook his head at her speculation. "No, it actually fell on the floor," he replied, "but I for sure am not going to use something that has fallen to the floor in my mouth."

 _Couldn't you have like...I don't know, washed it with water_? Becky wanted to ask him but decided against it. After all, it was better to have a new toothbrush after the other had been worn out. "That reminds me," she then perked up as she looked at Kevin, "I think I need a new one myself. The bristles on mine have gotten worn out."

"And mom always said to change our toothbrush every three months," Kevin added with a nod of his head.

 _Look who's finally listening_ Becky mentally thought and then chuckled, raising a hand and ruffling Kevin's blond hair. She received a little glare from him when she did that but that didn't cause any concern for Becky. "Okay," she began and threw the sheets off of her and placed her feet inside her slippers, "let's have a bit of breakfast and we'll go and get those toothbrushes."

Kevin nodded his head. Also, he was looking forward to going outside a little bit for the day now that they had at least some sunshine.

* * *

After the morning routine had been accomplished, Becky made her way downstairs to see what they could have for breakfast. "Oh..." she said as she looked into the refrigerator and noticed the lack of dairy that wasn't even there. Did that mean another visit to the pancake house? Hopefully wherever her and Kevin were going from the toothbrushes, there would at least be some milk there. Dry cereal didn't sound too appealing.

"Kevin we don't have any-" she yelled to the top of the stairs when she suddenly heard a scream coming from her parents' bathroom. Her protective instincts immediately kicked in as she didn't waste a single second and ran up the stairs and over to the second floor. "Kevin!" she exclaimed as she flew into her parents' bedroom and over to the bathroom. In there, she noticed Kevin who was wearing nothing but a large green towel wrapped around his waist and he had his hands glued upon his cheeks.

The younger McCallister slowly turned around and looked at Becky when she made her presence known by the doorway. "That...hurt..." was all he said.

"What did you even do?" Becky asked and approached Kevin. By the many contents of men's hygiene products that had been placed on the counter of the bathroom sink, it didn't take long for Becky to realize that he had gotten his hands onto them.

"I used some of dad's shaving lotion," Kevin answered in a mumble.

Becky let out a sigh as she took a gentle hold of the bottle and inspected it. "You know you're not supposed to do that."

"But dad does it all the time after he shaves," Kevin said, "I've seen him use it before."

"But dad is not eight years old," Becky replied to him, "so I think you shouldn't be using this again or it will burn the same way again."

It took Kevin all his will not to roll his eyes at Becky. _You don't have to be so bossy_ he thought as he looked at her, even though her intentions were mostly for the well being of her younger brother. "Fine," he then answered her, "is breakfast ready?" he asked.

"We have cereal but we don't have any milk," Becky replied to him, "so...no."

"Does this mean that we get to have another visit at the pancake house?" Kevin asked as a smile came to his lips. Yesterday when they had been there, he had enjoyed his meal and if they were going again, he was intrigued to try out more of the flavorful options that were recommended on the menu. The Christmas Special actually sounded like a good meal, even though it was a little bit pricey but Kevin was more inclined to share it with Becky than with anyone else.

A chuckle escaped Becky's lips when Kevin suggested the pancake house. All in all, that sounded like a good idea to the teen. She only hoped that she had enough money for the both of them. "Oh we'll see about that," she answered him, "now hurry up and get yourself ready. I'll wait for you outside in the back," she said to him. Becky was aware that Kevin took longer than the others to get ready, so why not enjoy a little bit of the snow and the sunshine?

"Okay," Kevin agreed to their plan, "I'll see you there," he said.

Becky walked out of the bedroom, down the stairs and out the back of the house. Her boots crunched within the soft pile of snow and slightly sunk inside. It was like walking on cotton, very cold cotton but to the teen, it was all the more enjoyable. She knelt down and grabbed a handful of the snow in her gloved hands and began to make a ball out of it. Perhaps she might give her little brother a surprise with a snowball fight but she knew that she was going to have to make more than just one. After making one of them, she took another handful of snow to make another snowball when she a sudden object caught her eye.

"Wait," she squinted and looked at a blue van that was parked on the driveway of the Murphy's home, "I thought the Murphys had gone to Florida." Then again, she was not aware of the vehicles that the Murphy's drove but she didn't think that the Murphy's would have a company van like that.

Becky took a step closed to the van to make out the words that were written onto them. _OH-KAY Plumbing_ _& Heating_. Becky titled her head to the side when she read those words. Why would the Murphy's want a plumbing and heating company to look after their home? Unless there was something wrong with their plumbing and heating of course. Being the curious one that she was, Becky only got closer to the van to inspect it some more.

The van looked like it wasn't more than two years old due to the chipping of the paint on the surface of the car and the red letters of the words.

"Hey!" an abrupt male voice suddenly came to her ears as Becky gasped and turned around only to come face to face with a man who had a towering height of six feet, four inches, curly hair that reminded her of Einstein's, and sharp blue eyes that were staring at her with slight fear yet intimidation.

"S-Sorry," Becky apologized as she took a step back from the man. "I-I did not mean to intrude on your job...or property," she said, thinking that this man was either an employee of the _OH-KAY_ company or either a family member of the Murphys. Even though the Murphys were good neighbors with the McCallisters, they didn't share their side of the extended family with them.

At first, the man was confused at what she meant by 'job' and 'property' before it dawned on him that him and his partner were using the van as a way to deceive other neighbors from realizing their true intentions...and it seemed that they had one fooled already. "Oh. That," he said as he briefly looked over at the man and back at Becky, "yeah. We're just doing our job, making sure that...the plumbing is alright," he answered Becky whilst wondering whether he had come up with a good explanation or not. Even through his explanation, he took another long stare at Becky before realizing what he should do with her. Should he let her go, head inside the house and alert his partner, or stuff her in the van? If he were to do such, would his partner even appreciate that they had a kid on board of their van along with the many items that they had stolen from other houses?

Suddenly, a knock was heard from the window from within the Murphy's home and Becky slight;y turned her head to see who it was. The man before her looked as well but he seemed to have been slightly paranoid than Becky was. The figure that was inside the house, shared the same feelings of paranoia as his partner when the noticed the girl by the driveway even speaking with his partner in crime. As for Becky, she was a little far away to make sense of the expression that he had upon his face.

"I'm seeming to be holding the both of you up," she chuckled nervously and readjusted the gloves in her hands, "I'm sorry for the interruption mister," she said and proceeded to take a step back away from him.

Slightly concerned about this sudden girl who had appeared on the driveway, there had to be a way to make sure for her to keep her mouth shut. She seemed to believe his side of the story about being a worker for the _OH-KAY_ company but he didn't want his partner to have any suspicions than he already was. "Hey wait a minute," he said as he reached into his the pockets of his coat and pulled out what seemed to be a candy bar.

Becky halted in her steps and looked at the treat. That was quite unexpected coming from a plumbing employee but it was nonetheless kind even after she had intervened on their job.

"We always leave something nice behind to our clients after we're finished, but don't tell 'em it was from us," he said as he held out the candy bar to her.

Becky looked at the sweet treat and slowly held out her hand before she took a gently grasp from it until it was into her possession. "That's very nice of you," she said before stuffing it into the pocket of her coat. Something nice that she could share with Kevin. "Thank you mister. Have a Merry Christmas." With that, she turned on her heel and headed back to her own property.

Kevin was already bundled up in his hat, scarf, and mittens and already outside. "Hey," he said as he greeted Becky who walked over to him. "Where did you go?"

Becky only shook her head at him and smiled. She looked rather flushed upon her cheeks from the encounter let alone the cold that was freezing her cheeks but she didn't want to worry her little brother about that. After all, he could be just as curious as she was. "I was around," she said as she linked her arm with his, "shall we get going?" she asked him.

"Yup," Kevin answered her before his eyes then fell on the same van that Becky had just seen. "I thought the Murphys had gone to Florida," he said before shrugging his shoulders and not giving it much thought.


	8. Scary Encounter

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

The snow crunched beneath their boots as the two McCallister were making their way over to the shop to the nearest drugstore to get the toothbrush. The streets of Winnetka were quieter than the usual days of the week making it feel like it was a ghost town rather than a busy neighborhood. "It's very weird seeing how empty the streets look," Kevin broke the silence between them when they walked down a street that led them into town where a single car suddenly passed by.

"Not so silent anymore," Becky said as she pointed with a gloved hand over to the car that had passed. She slinked her hand back inside the pocket of her coat before feeling an object inside. It was the chocolate bar that stranger had given to her and she was tempted on eating it whilst walking or share it with Kevin. _But do I really want to do that_? she mentally asked herself. Sometimes, in life, it was better not share certain things with one's sibling and that included chocolate.

Looking at the car that passed by them Kevin turned his head to the other direction, looking both ways before both he and Becky crossed the street. One of his siblings would probably tease him ad say that he was too young to cross the street but he felt very responsible for checking the street. If his parents were ever to find out whenever they decided to appear, Becky would be a witness to back him up. "Becky," he said as he tugged on her hand and pointed before them, "I see the drugstore."

Becky turned her head forward and looked straight through the street. "Careful when crossing the street," she said as she held his hand tightly.

"Don't worry," Kevin chuckled and doing another check of the street, the eight year old too the lead and both him and his sister crossed the street.

Becky was glad when they finally reached the store. The coldness from outside was enough to sting her cheeks and once inside, the hot air wafted towards her. She was definitely going to order that hot chocolate once they went to the pancake house. "Finally," she breathed as slightly loosened her scarf around her neck and turned her attention to Kevin. "Alright Kevy, go on and pick your toothbrush. I'll just be looking around the store."

Kevin rose an eyebrow at her. "Don't call me Kevy," he said, slightly peeved by her use of the nickname towards him.

Becky chuckled as she turned her back on Kevin and went to explore around the drugstore. The amount of Christmas decorations were endless and even expensive since they were in seasons. Out of the corner of the store, there was only a little section that contained Thanksgiving decorations and they were rather cheap. Becky made her way over to the small section and curiously pawed through the Thanksgiving decorations. Her hands grabbed onto a turkey that was dressed in a traditional pilgrim costume and a small smile came upon her lips. This particular decoration was used as a centerpiece during the Thanksgiving back home where Uncle Rob and Aunt Georgette came to visit them. It had been quite the fun holiday and feast but Becky never wanted to look at another stuffed turkey until the next Thanksgiving. However, it wasn't just Becky who had suffered through the withdrawal of turkey for Kevin also had a bit too much turkey to chew on during that time. Giving the turkey decoration one last look, Becky let it drop from her hands and fall back into the shelf.

That was enough 'past holiday sight-seeing' so the teen focused her attention on the Christmas decorations. The ornaments were extremely beautiful and she could see her reflection through some of them. Becky reached over and grabbed one of the orbs, feeling the smooth surface of the object with her hand before placing it back. If only she had some decent amount of money rather than some mere allowance that she had saved, she would buy every decoration in the store.

"Hey!" a sudden voice exclaimed throughout the store as Becky's ears perked up, "Jimmy stop that boy!"

 _Trouble_ Becky thought as she tore away from the decorations and went to see what was happening. Slipping out of the door of the drugstore, Becky was hit by the cold air and she stood right next to one of the employees as he was yelling at a child across the street. Becky suddenly gasped after realizing whom that child was. "Kevin!" she breathed out but before she could run over to him, the employee had yelled his accusation towards a police officer who commenced the chase after Kevin.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Becky exclaimed and glared at the employee before her. "He's my brother," she stated and reached into her pocket where she took out a couple of bills and without counting them, she placed them in his hand. "Whatever he accidentally took, this should cover it," she said. Before the employee could say anything to her, Becky took off and tried to find where Kevin had run off to. When she had seen him, he was running through the skating rink and the fallen police officer was evident enough that Kevin had cleverly outran him.

"Great," Becky whispered and ranked her fingers through her red hair. There was no way that she was going to walk through the ice rink, let alone slip and fall. Instead, Becky took off into a run and ran around the ice rink until she came upon a couple of footprints. "Hopefully it's you Kevin," Becky said, feeling slightly irritated as she stared at those footprints. She couldn't believe that Kevin had the gall to take something from the store without even paying for it! Didn't he know that it was the wrong thing to do? What would their parents say if they were to find out about this? Becky was not going to get the blame for this one and she was going to make sure about that.

Kevin's footprints suddenly stopped and Becky found herself over a bridge where the trains passed. Running through the bridge, she noticed his footprints appearing once again and it wasn't long until she could see a figure who was walking with his head down. Becky felt relief that he was alright and that she had found him, but she was also upset after what he had done. "KEVIN!" she yelled as she noticed the figure stop and turn around to look. Becky sprinted over to Kevin and immediately took a hold of his arms and held him tightly. "What were you thinking, huh?!" she exclaimed as she looked at him, "why did you do it?!"

Given the circumstances, all Kevin could do was just look at Becky with a shattered look in his eyes and not say anything. He knew that what he did was wrong but he also had a reason as to why he suddenly ran out of that store. He shook himself free from Becky's grip and didn't say a word as he turned his back on her and continued to clutch onto the toothbrush.

"Don't you walk away from me," Becky said as she pointed and chased after Kevin. "You know that's not the right thing to do. I had to pay for that just save you!"

Kevin couldn't even speak, let alone look at Becky. He wanted to explain to her as to why he had run out of the store but he felt that she wouldn't believe him. _Please just stop talking_ Kevin thought as he could hear his sister continuing on to lecture him about his misdeed. He quickened his pace as he tried to get away from her for the moment but the eight year old was not aware that a sudden blue van was sliding out of the driveway.

"Kevin watch out!" Becky exclaimed as Kevin suddenly looked up and came in close contact with the van. "Oh God," she breathed out in a whisper and ran over to Kevin who quickly moved away from the spot. Becky ran up to him and quickly checked him over to make sure that no harm was done to him from that surprise.

"Hey, you better watch out for traffic son you know?" Both of their attention was caught by the driver within the van.

"Sorry," Kevin said to him with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"Santa Clause don't visit the funeral homes little buddy," the passenger in the van suddenly spoke up and looked at the two siblings.

Becky titled her head to the side at the sight of the passenger but quickly shook her thoughts away. "We're really sorry mister. We both didn't see the van coming," Becky apologized as she held Kevin close to her side and gentler this time.

Kevin remained quiet but gave the two men a nod of his head. All he wanted to do was forget about this whole day and just go home. He felt that he had caused enough trouble as it was and didn't want to get yelled at not just by Becky but two other complete strangers.

"Okay, okay," the driver of the van suddenly spoke up as he looked back at the siblings and smiled, revealing a gold tooth. "Merry Christmas."

Upon seeing that gold tooth, Kevin froze as a little gasp escaped from his mouth. As for Becky, she only gave the driver a smile and nodded her head to him. "Merry Christmas sir. Have a good afternoon. C'mon Kevin," she said as she grabbed her brother's hand and they both turned around to walk down the street and towards home.

As Kevin followed Becky, his grip upon her hand was tighter than usual and he had an uneasy feeling about that man that he had just seen in the van. He didn't know why but it was a feeling that he felt he should listen to aside from ignoring it. His ears perked up when he heard a movement behind them and he stopped immediately in his tracks. "Kevin what is it?" Becky asked but Kevin didn't answer her as he turned his head and looked that the blue van was right behind them.

 _I knew it_ Kevin thought to himself and turned around once more.

"Kevin?" Becky asked as she looked at him, "what's...what's going on with you?"

"Whatever you do," Kevin said as he slowly turned his head and looked at her, "don't turn your head around."

"Why?" she asked as she was about to turn her head only to have Kevin tug on her arm. "Hey!"

"Just follow my lead," he spoke from the side of his mouth as if those two men were close in earshot to even hear them. "Come on," he said as his pace suddenly broke out into a sprint.

Becky was completely astonished as to what Kevin was doing but she went ahead and followed his lead and tried to keep up with his pace. Whatever the situation was, she hoped that it wouldn't follow them home. She looked up to her left and noticed their house that they passed but she could hear that tires of the van that were making their way closer to them. _Oh no_ Becky thought as her eyes widened in realization. Were they following both her and Kevin? And for what purpose?

Kevin picked up his speed as he ran and pulled Becky along with him until he was sure that they were far away from the van. All of that running led both of the siblings to the church. Becky was almost out of breath as she bent forward and placed her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath. Kevin surveyed the scenery around them and he noticed the statues depicting the birth of Jesus Christ. "We'll hide over there," he pointed to the setting.

"I'm not gonna hide there!" Becky exclaimed, "if we even touch it, it'll be worse than stealing!"

"Do you want to get caught by those guys?" Kevin exclaimed and frowned at Becky.

"Why would they?" Becky asked.

"You're so naïve!" Kevin shot back and he wasn't going to waste anytime arguing problem with Becky. Thanks to her, they had lost precious time and Kevin didn't want to lose another second of it. Quickly, he took hold onto one of the drapes and threw it over his figure before bowing his head and making it look like he was looking over the Jesus Christ figure.

Becky face palmed at what Kevin was doing. Was this a game that he was playing at? "Kevin come out of there!" she said in a hushed whisper but Kevin wouldn't even budge. He took a hold of the stick that he was carrying and pounded it against the platform of the setting, hard enough to make his sister shut her mouth. Becky took a step back when he did that and held up her hands in defeat. "Fine," she mumbled and turned away from the setting.

It wasn't long until she heard the blue van pulling up by the church. Looks like those two men were following them after all but if Becky took off, she had a feeling that would rise a lot of suspicion and she'd risk being chased after. Becky was about to pull the hood of her coat over her head so as to not be recognized but before she knew it, the blue van had already pulled up over to her and one of the men peeked out.

"Where did that fella go, little lady?" the driver asked as he looked down to her.

Becky shoved her hands within the pockets of her coat and tried to think of a good lie. Having had the experience of lying especially to her parents Becky knew that when it came to it, she was not a good liar whatsoever. "I...dropped him off at his house," she answered the driver with a smile.

"Which house?" the other man in the car asked only to be elbowed by the driver. "Ow Harry!" he whispered just loud enough that Becky caught his name.

"Shut up Marv," he said to the other through gritted teeth. "Don't mind my partner," the driver said when he noticed the shocked look upon Becky's face, "we were only wondering why the little guy looked scared when he saw us."

 _Harry and Marv_? Becky thought to herself. Why did those two names sound familiar to her but she didn't have enough time to contemplate it when the driver, who name turned out to be Harry, spoke to her. "Scared?" she asked as she looked over to Harry. "Ah, yes I think I know the reason why it is. You see, I am supposed to be looking after him until his mother comes back from working third shift and...uh...well, the thing is that I took him to a skating rink-" Becky was saying until she was interrupted by Marv.

"I have always wanted to go ice skating!" he exclaimed from within the car, "you have never taken me there!"

"Shut up!" Harry yelled and shot Marv a look, "can't you see that the little lady is speaking?"

Becky looked from one man to the other as they had their mere debacle. "Anyway, we were returning back home and that's when we bumped to you. It seemed the reason as to why he got so scared was that he realized that his mother was coming home at this hour and he wanted to return home as soon as possible. That's why we were running."

Harry frowned upon hearing this tale with Marv was nodding his head in the passenger seat. "Then why did he turn around and look at us?" Harry posed the other question to her.

"He's a very careful kid," Becky said, "look both ways when you're in the street."

"He didn't look so careful when I almost plowed him with the van," Harry stated, "doesn't make you look like the good..." he stopped as he looked at her up and down, "what? Nanny? Babysitter?"

"Answer 'b'," Becky nodded her head and that only received a look of confusion from Harry. "And yeah, it's hard when you're dealing with someone younger than yourself. One wrong move and 'whoosh!' they're gone from your sight."

 _Do I know_ Harry thought to himself for he was dealing with someone younger than himself this very moment in the car. Other than the false information that Becky had just given them, Harry didn't find it necessary to prod her on anymore. She didn't even tell them which house the kid was living in. "Thanks for reassuring us," he said and with that, he rolled up the window of the van and drove away.

Becky let out a breath of relief after the van had disappeared into the distance. Kevin shook the green drape away from his frame and ran over to Becky. "What happened?" he asked as he looked up at his sister. She looked like she had seen the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future all at the same time. "Becky? Hello?" Kevin said and waved his hand over her eyes, breaking her out of the trance.

"What?" Becky gasped and finally found herself where she was.

"What did they want?" Kevin asked, "I saw that one of them was talking to you."

"They only wanted to know why you were running away from them," Becky answered him, "and I want to know about it too."

"I told you to hide!" Kevin said to her and shook his head. "Anyway," he began before Becky had the chance to say anything else, "I noticed one of them and he has been in our house."

"How?" Becky asked, "and which one?"

"The one you were talking to," Kevin answered, "when mom was about to take me to the third floor, she was talking with a cop. He looked down and smiled at me and I noticed he had a gold tooth and that guy who was talking to you had the same shiny tooth in the same position."

"Okay, so he was the same cop and he was on his break," Becky said as she held her arms in the air, "so what?"

"No!" Kevin said, "you're not getting it. That guy is not a cop! They're the same two guys who came to steal from our house last night! They're thieves!"

It was then that Becky made the connection. When those two guys had come to their house during the night, she hadn't heard their names properly and she assumed they were named Henry and Mark but upon this confrontation, she had caught their names. _Harry and Marv_ she thought to herself and it was then that she believed what Kevin was trying to say to her. "Thank goodness I lied to them," she said and stuffed her hands in her pockets. Feeling that candy bar in there, she pulled it out.

Kevin frowned. "You didn't steal that from the drugstore did you?" he asked her.

"What? No," Becky answered, "I think it was one of those thieves."

Kevin looked at his sister as if she had nine heads. "When?"

"I went over to the Murphy's driveway because I noticed that blue van that was chasing us parked out there and I thought they either had relatives or workers over. I was just curious to see it. One of them came out and talked to me, saying that he worked for the company...and gave me this," she said as she looked at the candy bar.

"Don't you know that you shouldn't take candy from strangers?" Kevin said in a know-it-all tone of voice and smirked at Becky when he noticed that look of annoyance upon her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Becky rolled her eyes as the two of them began to walk on their path back home. "Do you think that they'll come back?" she suddenly asked as she looked down at Kevin.

Kevin had a feeling that they would come back and if they did, he would be definitely be giving them a welcome of a lifetime. "When those guys come back, we'll be ready," he reassured Becky with his words.


	9. Operation: Silhouette Mannequins

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

Driving down the streets of Winnetka, Harry Lime clenched tightly onto the steering wheel and his jaw tightened in thought. His mind continued to wander upon those two children that he had just seen and his suspicions about them wouldn't diminish. There had been something so off about that kid who looked at him strangely and he for sure didn't believe that girl's story of looking after that kid. If only he could put his finger on whom that young boy was but he had seen so many children in the houses that he was viewing that he couldn't even remember which kid was at which house. Now his thoughts fell upon that girl...or the 'babysitter.' Harry was aware that she was bluffing about her story that she had just told the both of them.

 _Look both ways when you're in the street_ were her words and he frowned at that. That usually happened when someone was heading straight, not looking behind them. He would have continued to question her but they were at a church and that girl looked petrified as he was speaking with her. Other than not knowing how to lie, the next thing she lacked in Harry's perspective was her way of acting like nothing was wrong. "That little..." he began to mumbled under his breath, catching the attention of his partner.

"What's the matter?" Marv asked when he noticed his partner's mumbles. The other thief may not have been a brightest candle but he could tell when his partner's anger was showing.

Harry shook his head in response at his partner's question. "Nothing. Just thinking about those two."

"About those kids?" Marv asked.

"No Marv the fishing lines that you forgot to take from the Murphy's," Harry's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Of course it's about those kids!"

Marv remained silent for a mere second, thinking that Harry was serious about the fishing lines. He was about to retaliate in telling him that he didn't even see any fishing lines in the home that they robbed but when Harry told him that it was about that girl and boy, he nodded his head. "This is why you should've brought me with you when you inspected those houses as an undercover cop," he then said to Harry.

Harry could have, but in an undercover job like that, he didn't trust Marv one bit. Not only did his partner not think before he spoke but he also had the tendency to unknowingly take items. What if one of the families had noticed that? They would both be busted in an instant and Harry didn't want to risk that. Even so, Marv was not one of the greatest cat burglars and that was evident back at the Murphy's home when he was loudly throwing every single item in his bag.

"I have a great memory," Marv stated, "I could've recognized them in an instant."

"Yeah?" Harry said, "then why couldn't you be recognize that girl to tell me about when she showed up in the Murphy's driveway?"

"I didn't have time to look at that girl over," Marv defended himself, "I had to get rid of her before she bought attention to us."

"By giving her chocolate," Harry then added. Even though he was not present in their interaction, he was close enough to see Marv doing that but he just couldn't make out the features of the young girl. "Bribery, real smart move Marv, real smart," he sarcastically complimented Marv. Harry sometimes wondered why he had been stuck all these years with Marv but the thief already knew the answer to that. The two of them had been accomplices for such a long time and through all of those years, a form of friendship had been established between the both of them. Even though Marv had his dim-witted moments, Harry wouldn't trade him for another accomplice in the world no matter how good of a cat burglar they were.

"Well it was the only way that I could think of to shut her up," Marv defended his actions. "What else was I supposed to do?" he suggested to Harry.

Harry had his own ideas what they could have done but it would have been a great risk. Even though the neighborhood was empty for the most part, if that girl was part of the neighborhood then her family was probably there. "Nothing," Harry suddenly answered Marv's question, "you were supposed to do absolutely nothing."

Marv remained silent after Harry spoke but it wasn't long before he turned around and looked at the black bags that were filled with the many items that they had stolen from those unfortunate houses. "Are we gonna pawn these off now?" he suddenly asked Harry.

"Yeah," Harry answered as he took a turn down a street, "but it ain't gonna be enough with just what we got off from the Murphy's."

It depended on how much the pawnshop owner valued those items, but for one thing that Marv was certain about was that the ring that they had obtained from a previous home before they invaded the Mruphy's was more valuable than any of the items that they had taken. "At least we have the ring," Marv smirked and reached inside the pocket of his coat. Feeling around for the ring but not finding it in his pocket, Marv turned his pocket inside out and was surprised to see that it wasn't there.

"Don't tell me you lost the ring," Harry suddenly spoke up but not looking at his partner.

"I have not," Marv spoke and continued to look for the ring.

Harry wasn't assured by Marv's answer and all the burglar could do was just shake his head and mutter 'idiot' under his breath.

* * *

After Kevin and Becky's encounter with the van, both McCallister siblings never thought they would be happy to be home. Closing the door behind them, Kevin locked the doors and slid down from the wall and sank onto the floor. All of that running had exhausted him and the thought that those thieves would come back once again made him feel all the more frightened.

 _No_ Kevin thought to himself. _I can't be frightened about this. Those thieves should never think of coming into this house_. A hand suddenly rested upon his shoulder as Kevin turned his head and looked to see Becky sitting next to him. He gave his sister a gentle smile and rested his head against her shoulder before feeling her arms envelop around him for a hug. "I'm glad to be home," he spoke up.

"So am I," Becky answered, "and those evil men didn't give us a chance to have our breakfast," she stated with a humorous tone in her voice as she tried to lighten the tension after that encounter. The revelation that those two men were actually thieves, and the ones who tried to rob their home last night, frightened the teen. "What should we do, Kevin?" she asked as she looked down to her brother.

Kevin took a deep breath as he tried to think what they would do. He had been there with his mother when she was speaking with the 'undercover cop' and now that the connection had been made between the thieves that he had just met and the 'undercover cop,' Kevin suspected that the thieves still believed that his family was still at home after he had opened the lights and scared them away. "We have to make them think that our family is here," Kevin said as he looked at Becky. "Those guys could strike at anytime and I don't them coming here and stealing from us."

Becky frowned as she thought about his words. How would they make two thieves believe that their family was here if it was just the two of them? "And how will we do that?" Becky asked him. "There's only two of us here. How will we make them think that there's a full house?"

Kevin was one step ahead of her on that. He was aware that the house contained a couple of mannequins in the basement that they could use to impersonate family members and Christmas music. "Easy," Kevin said as a smile came upon his lips, "all we need is some rope, mannequins, and Christmas music."

 _That's...a weird combination_ Becky thought whilst looking at Kevin. "Where are you going with this?"

Kevin sighed. His sister didn't share the same imagination as he did but explaining the plan to her would be better than just having him do it himself. The faster that they got through this plan, the better. "Okay," Kevin said as he stood up on his feet and looked at Becky, "the plan is we will make the mannequins move with the rope tied around them. It will give the thieves the image that there are people in the house having fun or even dancing to the Christmas music."

"Oh," Becky slowly said and nodded her head, finally understanding where Kevin was getting at with this plan. "Do you think that it will work though?"

"It worked when I turned on the light," Kevin reminded her, "they still think that our family is home. I think that if we give them to idea that our family is here, then they won't come back."

 _I hope so_ Becky thought to herself. "Let's get to work Kevin," she said with a determined smile finally coming to her lips and stood up on her feet. "Let's show those thieves who they're messing with."

Seeing that his sister was agreeing with this scheme Kevin smiled. "Let's do it," he stated with a firm nod of his head. He was determined to make sure that these burglars didn't come back at all. "You go and get three mannequins in the basement and I'll find some rope," Kevin instructed. He had a problem by going into the basement all by himself. The furnace that was down there always gave Kevin a fright as if it was going to eat him, but sending his sister down there, he knew that she could handle it.

 _And I get the handiwork_ Becky thought to herself before shaking her head. "Fine," she then answered her younger brother with a shrug of her shoulders before she headed down to the basement to go and get the dolls.

Kevin unlocked the door of the house and ran to the garage where he found a long white rope that he could use. "Perfect," he smiled as he began to unwind the rope to see its length. It was long enough to tie to the limbs of the mannequins and for him to hide somewhere in the house so he could move them. Securing the rope in his hands, Kevin then headed back inside the house and locked the door once again. The eight year old then headed into the living room and studied it's surroundings. It was perfect and big enough to create the illusion that there was actually a good group of people in the house. Kevin walked over to a table and adjusted the chairs where two mannequins would be placed to make it seem like they were having a conversation and right by the window, they could have another mannequin to make it look like it was dancing. But three mannequins didn't seem to be enough.

"Jeff's train," Kevin said. He could use that and one of Buzz's cardboard figures to make it seem like there was another person going about the house. With that idea in mind, Kevin took off into the third floor of the house where some of the old toys were kept and pulled out a box that contained a train set that Jeff used to play with before it was handed down to Kevin, even though Kevin never really played with it.

In the meantime, Becky managed to find three mannequins and one by one, she bought them up to the living room. Looking at those mannequins, they were enough to give Becky the creeps with those vacant eyes and immobile lips. "Yeesh," Becky shivered as she shut her eyes and looked away from them. "Kevin!" she suddenly yelled, "I got the mannequins."

Kevin then came down to the stairs with the train set and a cardboard figure of a basketball player that Kevin had taken from Buzz's room. "Good," he said to Becky, "I'll take it from here." He began to attach the tracks of the train in a circular pattern before placing the train into the tracks and taping the cardboard figure on top of the train before he went to adjust the other mannequins.

Becky stood where she was as she watched Kevin going from one section of the living room to the other. All she could see were mannequins and white rope that looked like a maze.

"There," Kevin said as he tied the last top around his leg and looked up at Becky, "and Buzz says that I can't tie my shoes." Looks like her little brother came in all sorts of surprises. "And this is how it's going to work," Kevin demonstrated and began to move his arms that caused the mannequins that were sitting on the table to move their limbs whilst the other mannequin that was placed on a moving pedestal started to slowly move in circles.

Becky's eyes looked from Kevin and over to the mannequins that moved due to Kevin. "This is very genius," she said with a chuckle. "And maybe to make it more realistic," she said as she walked over to the grand piano that was in the living room by the mannequins. "I can pretend to play the piano," she said and moved her fingers along the keys of the piano.

Kevin gave her a nod of his head. "Yep and now we wait for them to show up."

Becky looked out of the windows and noticed that it was still light outside and there was no car in sight. "Do we even know what time they will show up?" Becky asked and turned her head to Kevin.

"If they're smart enough, they might show up during the night. Maybe around the same time that they did last time," Kevin said to Becky.

Giving her brother a nod of her head, Becky moved away from the window. "I just hope that this works," she said before sinking into the chair that was by the piano.

Kevin walked over to his sister and sat down by her side. "It will," Kevin tried to assure her. He couldn't believe how much she was worrying about all of this when he had everything under control. "You just have to trust me on this."

"It's not that I don't," Becky said to Kevin, "it's just that they're thieves. They could be dangerous. What if they decide to come into the house anyway...or knock on the door or something?"

Kevin resisted the urge to roll his eyes when he heard his sister's theories about this situation. "They won't," Kevin said, "the last thing that they want to happen to them is to be seen by anyone. No thief in their right mind would even think of going up to the door and knocking on it. So," he paused for a mere second and looked at his sister, "Becky, stop worrying!"

* * *

Harry and Marv finally arrived at the pawnshop from the outskirts of Winnetka. Harry knew of this particular pawnshop many years ago before he set out his life as a criminal along with Marv. The thieves had visited this particular shop only a couple of times in the past but their luck in making some cash hadn't been so well, but he did hope that they would get a good amount of cash trading the items that they sold this time. "Get one of the bags," Harry said to Marv motioning to the back of the van with him thumb before he got out of the van.

Marv slid open the back door of the van and picked out one of the bags as instructed before Harry walked over to him and took the bag in his grip and it was heavy enough. Judging only by the weight of the bag, Harry imagined that's how much cash they would be making once they traded these items in. "Let's go," he motioned for his partner to follow him and both of the thieves made their way into the shop.

Inside the shop, the light were very dim and everywhere a person looked, there were many items from within. "Wow," Marv whispered as his eyes traveled about the room as opposed to Harry who was only concentrated in going to speak with the pawnshop owner who was standing behind the counter and looking through a piece of jewelry through an eyepiece.

Once Harry approached the counter, he cleared his throat and the man looked up from the jewelry and removed his eyepiece. "Mr. Lime," the pawnshop owner said and looked over to the thief, "good to see you again."

Harry didn't understand why this man had to always be so jolly and not just during the holidays but also year round. "Yeah, you too," he said indifferently and gently put the bag of items over to the counter. "I got some stuff for you."

"Perfect," the pawnshop owner replied as Harry took out the items from the bag and placed them onto the counter. "Someone has gone through some Christmas cleaning," the owner chuckled.

The best thing about this pawnshop owner, in Harry's perspective, was that he didn't dare ask either Harry nor Marv where they had gotten these items and it was better that way. "Just some old stuff to make way for the new stuff," Harry replied to the owner.

"Let's see them," the owner said as he took a gentle hold of one of the angle statuettes and observed them. "Seems this one has a little scratch," he said as his thumb gently grazed over the scratch that had happened on the surface of the statuette.

Harry knew that Marv was the one who was stealing those items and that unfortunate statuette had suffered a scratch from the crowbar. He briefly shot his partner a glare but it went unnoticed since Marv was preoccupied by looking at the other items around the shop. "Hopefully it doesn't bring down the price of it," he said.

"Not by much," the pawnshop owner replied and began to survey the other items. Some of the items looked unharmed while others seemed a little scratched and one of the other small angels had a broken wing. For the broken angel, the pawnshop owner couldn't accept it but those with the scratches, he could easily take care of them. "$300," the man suddenly said to Harry.

The burglar blinked when the price of the items was given. "That's it?" he asked him. It was quite the amount but not enough to satisfy Harry. If only they had that ring that Marv had last then the price would probably be in the thousands. "Damn it," he mumbled under his breath as hit the counter with the palm of his hand, "couldn't it have been any higher?" he then asked.

"I am sorry Mr. Lime but some of the damages on the items can lower the price of the items," the owner said to him, "now without the minor accidents, it would probably be $700 to $800 at least."

 _That's a lot better than $300 pal_! Harry wanted to snap and reach over the counter and grab as much money from the cash register as he could. "Fine," the thief answered as he tried to muster all of his anger within him before lashing out on the owner. "I'll take it."

The owner walked over to the cash register and pulled out three hundred dollar bills and handed them to Harry, who snatched them away from him and buried it within the pocket of his coat. "C'mon Marv, let's get outta here," he said to his partner before the both of them walked out the door. "That was a bust."

"How much did we make?" Marv asked.

"Three hundred lousy bucks," Harry answered him, "and the price would've been higher if none of the items were damaged, no thanks to you!" he yelled, causing Marv to wince at Harry's booming voice. "And if we had that ring that you lost the price would have been higher."

Marv hated being the reason to their failure in not making the proper amount of cash that they were supposed to. It had been Harry's goal that they would at least make it to the thousands, if not more and due to Marv's carelessness, he had been the reason as to why they made less money than they expected. The temptation to apologize to Harry was large, but Marv knew that Harry wouldn't accept that. Then again, Harry didn't approve of anything that Marv did, including that 'calling card' of his. "We'll make more next time," Marv suddenly spoke up as he tried to keep his voice at a positive note, "remember we still have that house that we tried to rob last time."

The Silver Tuna. The one house that Harry always had his eyes on for the longest time. Tonight was going to the night where they would strike and succeed.

* * *

" _...later we'll have some pumpkin pie and we'll do some caroling_!" both Becky and Kevin sang to the Christmas music that had been continuously been playing throughout the house. The moment that the sun had begun to set, both siblings had begun to execute the plan. Kevin was hiding behind the mannequin that was spinning around the pedestal and moving his arms about that caused the other mannequins to move.

Becky had herself seated onto the piano and was playing a couple of random keys that didn't produce a good melody but it was enough to show her silhouette from the outside of the windows along with the mannequins.

Kevin kept an eye out for the any figure of a van that would come down to the driveway while trying to make himself visible at the same time. All of this movement that he was doing was gradually starting to tire him but he had to keep up his momentum because one wrong move would ruin everything. _Come on, come on_ Kevin pressured himself to continue moving his arms about and from the corner of his eye, he noticed a van pulling up by the driveway.

 _"You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear voices singing 'let's be jolly; Deck the halls with boughs of holly..."_ the music began to play throughout the living room and that caused Kevin to move his arms even more from where he stood. As for Becky, she had no knowledge that the van was even up in their driveway with the two thieves staring at their home but seeing that the mannequins were continuing the move, she continued to play onto the piano.

Suddenly, Kevin noticed the van finally driving down the road and away from the house and that's when he ceased his activity. Going to the window, Kevin looked out a smiled. The plan had worked and the thieves were gone and hopefully for good. "Becky they're gone," he notified his sister and ran over to her.

Becky let out a sigh of relief and smiled as she gave her brother a high-five. "We did it, Kevin," she smiled to him, "I say we deserve a good rest for now."

Kevin couldn't agree more. He wanted to get away from these ropes tied around him. "Get me out of these," he said to Becky as she began to untie the ropes around his arms and leg. "And we'll clean up tomorrow. I'm really exhausted," he said to Becky.

"Then off to bed you go," Becky said as she motioned for her brother to head upstairs. She was willing to take care of the mannequins, the train, Buzz's cardboard cutout, and the rope.

"I'll wait for you there," Kevin smiled as he obeyed his sister's words and headed upstairs to clean himself and get ready for bed.


	10. Promises on Christmas Eve

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

Kevin was relieved that the diversion had worked. At first, Kevin had his doubts about whether the plan would work when it came to the mannequins. Some of those dolls were very old that he had a fear that one of their limbs or even their heads would fall off, which could motivate those two bandits to invade the house. Thankfully, none of those mishaps had occurred and the thieves had driven off from the property. As for Kevin, he could finally put his mind at rest. When he had seen Harry and that shining gold tooth of his, it was difficult for him to put two and two together. What other cop in Chicago had a golden tooth like that? And in the same place even?

 _Whatever. They're gone_ Kevin thought with a shake of his head as he slipped into his pajamas and went to go and brush his teeth with the new toothbrush that he had 'stolen' but Becky had paid for. The bristles of the brush were quite tough against his teeth as he brushed them back and forth and Kevin felt that the brush had irritated his gums. After he finished with his brushing, he could hear noises coming from downstairs as Becky was putting everything away and into the basement. Who knew that such a scheme would make both of the siblings tired and what Kevin needed right now was some good rest.

A little yawn escaped his lips as he climbed into his parent's bedroom and turned on the television where it was featuring a game show. Kevin suddenly stopped as he looked at the show that was playing. Was this the channel that his parents had been watching last night, before they disappeared? A wave of sadness suddenly took over Kevin as he gently but his lower lip to keep his emotions at ease. Being home alone had been all fun and games without the adults interfering but now that there was silence, aside from the slight noise coming from downstairs, the house felt very empty. Usually at this time of night, there would be noises coming from the other rooms. Buzz would be listening to his music, Jeff would be studying late, and Megan and Linnie would be gossiping with one another. As for his parents, they would be lying upon the bed that they shared, guessing to the answers on this game show and laughing with one another whether one would get the answer right or wrong.

At first, Kevin would be completely peeved at the noises that were being made when he wished that he could get some sleep, but now he wished that he could hear those noises and their laughter once more. Suddenly, he turned his head over to a picture that was positioned on his mother's drawers and it included every single member of the family. Reaching over, Kevin took a hold of the picture and looked at his parents and his brothers and sisters. They looked so happy in that picture and Kevin wondered if they would ever have moments like that again.

"I didn't mean it," he said in a slight whisper as he then bought the picture towards his lips and kissed the glass that held the picture within the frame.

"Kevin?" a voice suddenly came by the doorway as the young boy turned his head and saw his sister Becky standing there. Just great. His older sister caught him kissing a photograph.

"It's nothing," Kevin responded with a shake of his head and hid the frame underneath one of the red pillows that was propped against the bedpost.

Becky took the liberty and walked into the room as she looked over to the television and noticed the game that was being played. After finishing with the mannequins downstairs, she had returned the cut-out basketball figure and the train box set back to their rightful places. Now in her pajamas and ready for bed, she had walked in to wish Kevin a 'good night' but she had not expected to see that saddened look upon her brother's eyes. "You can tell me," she said as she knelt by the bedside and propped her chin in her hands and looked up at Kevin.

At first, Kevin was hesitating about telling her. He didn't want to seem like a baby in the eyes of his siblings, regardless that it was Becky. Knowing his sister's nature, he knew that all she wanted for him was to be better. "I just..." he began and then took a deep breath before continuing. "I just miss them is all."

Becky's eyes wandered over to the game show for a mere second. The feeling was mutual. She had never spent a single day without anyone at home, including Kevin. "Yeah," she said as she looked back to Kevin. "I miss them too."

"Will they ever come back?" Kevin asked.

To Becky, she never believed that the family had disappeared. They had probably left in a hurry for their flight and among all of the chaos, they had forgotten the both of them. Or at least that's what Becky suspected. "They will Kevin," Becky assured her brother as she looked at him. "Mom is not the kind to purposefully leave us while they go on a trip."

That was true to Kevin. Even though Kate had her moments of being stern with him, she was loving and gentle with all of her children. "But where they could be?" Kevin asked Becky.

If only Becky knew the answer to that question. "Paris, maybe?" she suggested with a shrug of her shoulders, "maybe trying to come back and get us? I don't know," she then added and rested her head against the bed. She hoped that they would be coming back. Becky was beginning to grow worried once more after seeing that blue van at their property. Would this be the last that they see of those bandits? A part of Becky hoped so but another part of her didn't believe that this was the last that they had seen of those bandits. She slowly lifted her head from the bed and looked at Kevin. "Let's try and get some sleep, okay?"

"Alright," Kevin said as he adjusted his pillow and lied his head against the pillow. He looked at Becky who was about to shut the light on the drawer. "Will you stay here, tonight?" he asked. Kevin usually liked to sleep by himself but after the way that he was feeling and after their encounter with those bandits, Kevin needed someone by his side.

When Kevin asked, a smile suddenly came upon Becky's lips. "Sure," she said as she took a hold of the red covers, lifted them, and entered inside the sheets. The bed was so warm and it even held their mother's perfume-like aroma. The kind that Becky liked whenever she kissed her. "Goodnight Kevin," she whispered as she felt her eyes getting heavy the moment that her head was upon that pillow.

"Goodnight Becky," Kevin replied to her before he gently shut his eyes and went into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

Harry Lime couldn't believe it. This was the second time that he and Marv had gone down to that McCallister house only to find the place full of people and that Christmas music that had been playing since the middle of November. There were a couple of things that Harry couldn't understand. First, when he had met Kate in his police outfit, she had been very convincing that they were going on their trip to Paris. So, why weren't they there the morning after? There was something that didn't add up about this situation, but Harry didn't even know what the missing piece was. Maybe they pushed back the date of their trip or something but he was willing to try again tomorrow. Harry felt that it was going to be another fifty-fifty shot with this family but the man was too determined to get his hands on everything in that house.

The blue van slowly rolled towards an old apartment building and Harry turned off the engine of the van. Letting out a sigh he leaned against the driver's seat and started to twirl a silver ring band that was wrapped around his finger. Out of all the things in life, this had to be one of the most turning-points in his life, before he started to go into a life of crime. However, stealing for him meant items that he could pawn off, and that meant more money. Even though him and Marv had only made a lousy three hundred bucks for tonight, he hoped that it was enough to support them with food.

"Marv...Marv!" Harry exclaimed and shook his partner awake who had been snoozing for the majority of the car ride.

"Huh?" Marv questioned as he opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. "Oh we're here?" he asked before running a hand over his face as he looked at the apartment before them. "Finally," he muttered under his breath. He had been waiting for the moment where he would be lying upon his bed. Who knew that stealing houses would be quite the exhausting job for this thief.

"And remember what I told you," Harry said as he turned his attention over to Marv, "not a word about where we've been."

Marv gave his partner a nod of his head. He may seem like the bumbling type of man but he would never reveal about his and Harry's real job to anyone, let alone with the woman who was considerate enough to share her apartment with them. "What about the money?" he inquired. "What're we going to do about that?"

The money. Of course! Even the money was something that had to be kept a secret just between the both of them. "We say nothing about it," Harry said to him. "We'll wait until next week, bunch up how much we have, and we'll see what we can do with it all." Dividing equally was something that Harry wasn't too keen on, even when it came with his trusted partner but there had to be a compromise between the both of them. Harry was just going to think about it for it all depended on how much money they had.

With that in mind, the two thieves exited out of the van and made their way over to the apartment. The heating system had been adjusted, finally, and a wave of warm air hit them as they entered inside the building. "Thank God," Harry said as he began to climb the stairs to the third floor. "It's about time they fix the heat. It's been freezing for the last couple of days!"

Marv remembered that well enough. During those past couple of nights, he had been sleeping with three blankets and even those weren't enough to keep him warm. "Looks like I won't be sleeping with three blankets tonight," he couldn't help but say it.

"You're lucky we even have three blankets," Harry responded as he stood in front of the entrance door and knocked rapidly on the door. He was relieved that they and finally arrived to the apartment. Marv was not the only one who was feeling exhausted. The thought of kicking off his shoes and throwing his feet up on the bed sounded all the more tempting.

The click of a lock was heard and the doorknob turned as the door was pushed open and a young woman that possessed brown hair and brown eyes stood before the doorway. She blinked before a serene smile came upon her lips at the sight of the two men before the doorway. "Oh, looks like we'll have our roommate sleeping over once more," she said as she looked at Marv, "welcome in Mr. Merchants."

"Come on Mrs. Lime," the bandit couldn't help but chuckle at her words, "you can just call me Marv."

"And you can just call me Amy," she chuckled as she stepped to the side and allowed space for the both of them to enter inside the apartment. Every room in the apartment was cramped with the others, which would suffice if one person lived in such an apartment. However three people were just too much, but it was all that could be afforded for the time being especially when one of them was looking for a job. "And just where have you been?" Amy suddenly asked as she folded her arms and her eyes fell upon Harry.

"I told you already," Harry answered her, with a bit of an irritated tone dripping from his voice, "we were busy." The last thing that he wanted was to be questioned about his late night affairs. He only hoped that she wouldn't ask what they were exactly doing. After all, he had never dared to tell his wife that they were stealing houses and pawning off the precious items that they stole.

"Busy, hmm?" Amy asked as she rose an eyebrow and looked over at Marv. "This late?" she said with a shake of her head as she made her way over to Harry and took a hold of his coat.

"You know how it is," Harry responded before Marv had the chance to say anything. "Everyone was doing their last minute Christmas shopping, traffic was crazy."

With the coat hanging on her arm, Amy reached into the closet and pulled out a hanger and adjusted the coat. "Did you do any shopping yourself?" she asked, a teasing tone in her voice. After spending so much time with Harry, it made Amy realize that he wasn't the type of man who took any interest in shopping, no matter what the event or holiday it was. "You better not disappoint me."

Harry rolled his eyes at her words. He was not in the mood to be lectured or even playfully teased as she was doing right this minute. "I'll get you a mistletoe alright?" he remarked and took off his black hat with a huff.

"I would say it sounds romantic if you weren't in such a mood," Amy said as she witnessed the attitude that Harry portrayed. Perhaps it was the cold weather followed by the long night hours that he had been awake. That could put anyone in a mood, especially Amy.

Marv used as much strength as he could to muster a yawn before speaking. "That's what being tired does to him," he pointed out and motioned at Harry who only gave him a glare in return.

"Boy do I know," Amy chuckled and placed the hanger with the coat in the closet before her eyes fell upon Harry and a smile came upon her lips, "but I love you otherwise."

Did she have to say it right then and there where Marv was standing? Harry didn't know whether he should just remain quiet or wish that he was completely invisible. He loved the woman as well but he didn't display such affection towards her when his partner was standing there! "Amy come on..." he muttered when she had said it. He noticed that a confused look came upon her face until a moment of realization hit her.

"Oh...right," she said and looked to the ground, feeling rather insecure of her words. Harry had warned her many times not to do it, but it had proven to be difficult on her part. She admired Harry very much and on such nights where he would be gone from the hours that she woke up until the night that he would return, made her miss him more. "Well then," she suddenly perked up as she looked at Marv who was just witnessing the scene between them, "I believe that we all should get some rest."

Marv was not hesitant at that. "I'm finished," he said and took off his own coat which Amy took and hung onto another hanger. "Have a good night," he said to Amy, "and I'll see you in the morning," he said to Harry.

Harry watched as Marv made his way into the small guest room that he had been sleeping in for the past couple of months. It was surprising that Amy didn't find it as a problem that Marv would be their constant roommate but Harry was glad that she didn't. The last things that he wanted was to deal with a wife that complained and a friend who had no home to live in. Then again, Amy wasn't one who would complain all the time, only when he was late. "You comin'?" he asked and looked at Amy who had made her way into the kitchen.

"I will be there in a little bit," Amy responded, not bothering to turn around to even look at Harry.

 _Now what?_ the man thought as he resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the attitude that she displayed. "What's the matter?" he asked and approached her.

"Nothing," Amy answered before putting a kettle on the stove to heat up as she turned her head and looked at him. "Just making some tea."

"Tea?" he asked her, "at 11:50 at night?"

"It helps me sleep," she answered as she looked at Harry, "you on the other hand, should go to sleep."

 _Don't tell me what to do_ he wanted to snap at her. He was not in the mood for that, even if she meant no harm by those words. "I'll go when I want to," he said and walked over to the small dining table, "pour me a cup will you?"

Amy's eyes secretly lit up when he said so. It was rare that they would spend times like this with one another and just for that, Amy wanted to enjoy this very moment. "Just in time," she said as the tea kettle began to whistle loudly. Two tea bags were placed into two mugs and the water was poured onto them, causing the essence of the tea to waft into the air. "Two mugs of tea coming right up," she said and placed one mug in front of Harry and the other she held in her hands.

Harry wasn't one who enjoyed tea but he could still feel that cold air that he definitely needed something to warm up. "Thanks," he said before brining the hot mug over his lips and sipping in the hot tea. The tea wasn't that satisfying but it was enough to warm him from within and that was all that he needed. Well, in contrast to what, he needed to have had everything in that house! It was that damn house that was irritating him so much! _Damn, damn, damn_ _we almost had it!_ he wanted to yell.

"Harry?" Amy's voice and gentle touch upon his fisted hand bought him back to reality as he looked up at her, "are you alright?" she asked as concern came over her eyes as she looked at him.

Putting down his mug, he bought his other hand and rested it upon hers reassuringly. "I'll be fine, it's been a long night," he tried to sound as truthful as he could. A long night it had been, but he would have been alright if he had gotten his hands on that house, "and I'm afraid it's going to be even longer tomorrow."

The concerned look disappeared as a look of disappointment took over her features. "Oh," she said, "but tomorrow is Christmas Eve."

 _So what? I hate Christmas!_ Harry thought but there was no reason for him to yell all about it. Now when Marv was in the other room. "I promise that I'll make it up to you...on Christmas Day," he said to her.

"Do you promise?" Amy asked as she took a sip of her tea and looked at Harry.

"Have I ever broken my promises?" he asked her.

"Well, you're not one who makes them in first place," Amy said as a small smile took over her features. The clock suddenly struck twelve as the microwave clock beeped, causing Amy to look up. "Now you just have one day love, it's finally Christmas Eve."

* * *

 **With Harry's ring, in the first movie it is seen that Harry is wearing a silver ring around his finger. My only assumptions were that he was either engaged or married and I thought that marriage sounded more suitable than an engagement.**

 **Slight character update on Amy's physical look.**


	11. Christmas Eve Morning

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

The next morning, Kevin was feeling in high spirits than he had ever felt during the past few days. Could it have possibly been that it was the morning of Christmas Eve or the fact that he had survived last night scaring those bandits? Perhaps it was a little bit of both for the young eight year old and he was glad that he had seen the last of those two men. He looked over to the other side of the bed and noticed that Becky was in her usual deep sleep. As tempting as it was for Kevin to gently hit his older sister with a pillow to awaken her, he gently reached over and shook her shoulder. "Becky," he whispered and leaned close to her, feeling that her shoulder was warm as he touched it. "Wake up, we have stuff to do."

Becky mumbled in her sleep before she ran a hand over her eyes to rub off the sleep. "What stuff?" was the thing that she asked Kevin as opposed to the regular 'morning' greeting.

"Well, let me think," Kevin said as he rolled his blue eyes over to the ceiling and pretended to think. "First we need to do some grocery shopping because we haven't had any breakfast in days, which reminds me, we need milk, eggs, fabric softener-"

Becky raised herself from the bed and rested on her left elbow as she tiredly looked at Kevin. "Since when did you decide to go grocery shopping?" she asked. All that Becky wanted at this moment was to just continue sleeping. After that whole mannequin fiasco last night, her mind had been very alert during the hours of the night and she feared that those bandits would come back really early in the morning to rob them again. "Plus we don't have any money," she added.

Kevin stood up from the bed and sat down. "I got some money from Buzz's lifesavings," Kevin told her. A part of his head still hurt after he had suffered from that crash on the floors and the wooden shelves falling onto him. "That should be enough to get us some food right?"

"Okay, you did what?" Becky asked as she learned of this fact. She knew that Kevin, and even herself included, were not allowed to step foot in Buzz's room. Being home alone did give Kevin the advantage to freely go in and out of his older brother's room and take whatever it was that he wished. Becky thought whether this would be stealing but would it matter? They were using the money for the house. "I don't even want to know," Becky then added when Kevin was about to say what he had done and why he had done it. Throwing the red bed covers off of her, Becky sighed and got up from the bed and faced her younger brother. "Let's just go and get ready." She walked out of her parent's bedroom and headed over to the bathroom in the hall.

Kevin hopped off the bed and made his way over to the bathroom in his parents' room. He went through his usual morning routine that consisted of taking a hot shower, brushing his teeth, and then pampering himself with his father's shaving creams and lotions, which resulted in him getting another burn on his cheeks.

Having heard her brother's screams, Becky slowly walked into the bathroom and folded her arms across her chest. "Let me guess..."

"Dad's shaving lotion," both siblings said in unison as Becky shook her head and Kevin only stared at her. Kevin knew better than to not use the shaving lotion after the first time, but he was quite the curious child. There would be times when Kevin would even watch his father shave his facial hair and he had always been curious to see how it felt like. "You never learn do you?" Becky's voice suddenly broke Kevin away from his thoughts as he looked at her.

Kevin took the shaving lotion bottle in his hand and twisted on the cap. "It's not like it hurt that much," Kevin answered in his defense even though his cheeks continued to sting. He could feel his muscles flinching as the burn continued to sear his cheeks.

"Mmhmm, sure," Becky hummed out and rolled her eyes at her brother. "Want to go and grab a bite of breakfast before we do some shopping?"

"Yeah," Kevin answered and his eye lit up at that, "I'm starving."

"Then hurry along and dress up and I'll meet you downstairs," Becky said as she gave her brother a gentle push out of the bathroom. "I'll take you to that pancake place again."

A smile made it's way to Kevin's lips. He had his mind on that Christmas special meal ever since they were supposed to go there yesterday. He only hoped that they had enough money to pay for it.

* * *

There was nothing worse than having the rays of the sun streak through the windows of the bedroom and into Harry Lime's eyes. The thief groaned when he opened his eyes, almost blinded by the illuminating light that was making it's way into the bedroom. To Harry, this wake up call was worse than an alarm clock, not to mention when he was having a remarkable dream of successful stealing every single item from that house. He propped himself from the bed and leaned against the headboard of the bed, lost a bit in his thoughts. Harry's mind had been on that house ever since yesterday and he just couldn't believe that neither he nor Marv were able to execute their plan. He had heard that woman correctly, they said that they would be leaving for Paris in the morning. So, why didn't they?

An exasperated sigh escaped his lips and that caused Amy, who was lying right beside him, to stir awake. The woman's eyes suddenly fluttered open as her eyes looked up and over to Harry. "You're awake," she said with a smile before stretching slightly enough. "Good morning to you too," she said and propped herself against the headboard and leaned against Harry.

"Morning," the thief answered to her in return. Moments like this of having his wife leaning next to him were nice, but having so many thoughts in his head, Harry just couldn't enjoy it.

Amy rose an eyebrow as she lifted her head from his shoulder and looked over at him. "Aww, did somebody wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" Amy asked as she leaned close to him and placed an arm around his shoulders. Harry wasn't usually an affectionate man, but he had those rare times when he showed it. To Amy, those were one of the many mornings that she cherished...and missed. Due to Harry's current mood, Amy felt that it was going to be one of those unaffectionate morning.

"Just woke up with too many things in mind," Harry answered, hoping that she wouldn't prod on with questions about what those 'things' were. The last thing that he wanted to tell his wife was his current occupation with Marv. The thief didn't know what Amy might even think about that, but he knew that she would be disappointed and enraged. "Don't bother askin'," he suddenly interrupted Amy when she was about to open her mouth to ask.

Clamping her lips shut, Amy didn't move away from Harry but just let out a sigh. "You're not supposed to let 'things' on your mind ruin Christmas Eve for us," she mumbled under her breath, which had been loud enough for Harry to hear.

The bandit frowned at her words. "Well _excuse me_ for not liking Christmas so much," he said and turned his eyes over to Amy who suddenly moved away from him.

"What's your problem with Christmas anyway?" Amy wanted to know as she looked at him. "You've never been like this during the past ones."

Many people in Chicago saw Christmas as a very important holiday. A holiday where they would get together with their families, have dinner, and distribute Christmas presents to one another. Harry didn't have any of those. The only people that he considered to be his family was his wife, of course, and Marv. For dinner, they didn't have a lot to afford for such a big dinner and the presents...Harry couldn't believe how materialistic people had been evolving throughout the past couple of years. Not to mention that Amy was also falling into that equation. "I have my reasons," he suddenly replied.

"Which are?" Amy asked and raised an eyebrow at him.

 _For the love of..._ Harry mentally face palmed. He could feel that this conversation was going nowhere with his wife and he didn't want to voice his opinions in fear of upsetting her even more. "That's for me to know and you to find out," he answered, before he could stop himself. Then again, Harry was not one to hold his tongue when it came to arguments.

Amy rolled her eyes. "I have no time for guessing games Harry," she stated with an unenthusiastic look in her eyes. Throwing off her covers, Amy got up from the bed and walked over to the other room where she shut the door.

"Women," Harry muttered as he watched his wife disappear into the next room before he decided to get up himself. Knowing Amy, she would probably forget about the whole conversation and ask him to buy her a present. Not that he was going to do it. Buying a present was the last thing on his mind, even if it was for his wife. For now, him and Marv had bigger fish to fry and that fish was the Silver Tuna. Making his way into the kitchen, Harry decided to make a fresh cup of coffee hoping that the caffeine would put his mind at ease as well as awaken him from the sleep that continued to linger upon his eyes.

As the coffee was being made, the door of the guest room swung open and Marv walked into the kitchen. He let out a loud yawn that caused Harry to shake his head in exasperation. "Mornin' Harry," the taller bandit greeted his friend with a rather cheerful smile upon his lips, "how'd you sleep?" he asked before plopping onto an dark brown wooden ordinary chair that was by the table. Marv suddenly sniffed as the warm aroma of the caffeine diffused into the kitchen. "Making coffee? I wanna cup!" he said as he stood from his chair and went over to grab a mug.

Harry took the liberty in pouring a cup for himself before Marv had his chance to do the same. "I've been thinkin' about that house Marv," Harry said before taking a sip of the hot coffee.

"The Silver Tuna?" Marv asked and turned his full attention on Harry.

Harry was not in the mood to answer Marv with a sarcastic remark. "Yes Marv, that house," the shorter bandit replied and tried his best not to let his nerves get the better of him. "I wanna try going there again. Somethin' just doesn't feel right about that house you know?"

"I guess so," Marv answered, "you said that they were gone to Paris and next thing you know, the whole house was jumping last night."

"With that annoying Christmas music," Harry scoffed. He still couldn't get the lyrics of _Rocking Around the Christmas Tree_ out of his head from last night.

"I kind of like that music actually," Marv said with a slight smile upon his lips, " _rocking' around the_ _Christmas tree,"_ he began to sing.

"Oh no," Harry said as he shut his eyes and moved away from Marv the moment that he began to sing.

" _Have a happy holiday_!" Amy's voice suddenly came into the kitchen as she walked over fully dressed in gray sweatpants and a white sweater. "At least another one of us is in the Christmas sprit," she said as she gently nudged Marv's arm with her elbow and smirked. "A Merry Christmas Eve to my two favorite fellas," she said as she got herself in the middle between Harry and Marv and hung both of her arms around their necks.

"Oh so now Marv is your favorite fella?" Harry asked with a rather teasing tone in his voice, which took Amy by surprise. It was rare that Harry would use that sort of tone with her but at least his mood had slightly lightened.

"Always is and always will be," Amy teased him back before giving Marv a friendly kiss on the cheek.

"Oh shucks," Marv responded to the kiss with a rather silly smile upon his lips.

"Hey!" Harry responded when he saw Amy, which caused his wife to only smirk at his words. Before the bandit knew it, he felt his wife's lips against his own as she kissed him in return. It wasn't a kiss that was quick but one that was both deep and passionate and something that Harry didn't want to be displayed in Marv's eyes. One of the reasons to that was Harry wanted to keep everything between him and Amy private but even that was no possible, not after the fact that Marv was residing them and Amy freely expressed her desire for Harry.

The moment that Amy pulled away from him, a smile was upon her lips and she looked at him. "No need to get that mistletoe now."

Harry was silent and all he could do was just stare at Amy. No matter how many times Harry had told her to keep her feelings to the side while he was working with Marv, she just didn't seem to listen to his words. "I guess not Amy," Harry replied with a sigh, "now if you'll excuse us, me and Marv have some business that we have to attend to."

Marv look at his half empty coffee mug in his hands and frowned. "I haven't finished my coffee yet."

"You can take it with you," Amy suggested, "the faster you finish, the faster you can come home and we'll have ourselves a merry little Christmas."

 _A merry little Christmas filled with lots of money_ Harry wanted to add upon Amy's words but he decided not to voice his thoughts about it. The quicker and he and Marv stole from the house, the quicker they could come back home and think of their next heist. It would just be difficult to keep as a secret from Amy but Harry had his ways of persuading her to go along with their plan without her even thinking that it was a heist. "Let's go Marv," the bandit suddenly said and made his way over to the door.

Amy followed after Harry and took out his gray long coat, green scarf, black hat, and gloves. Wrapping himself in the layers of clothing, Harry finished by wrapping the scarf around his neck. He had a feeling that it was going to be a long and cold day and he needed enough layers of clothing to keep himself warm. Marv had been ready the moment that he awoke as he wrapped his jacket tightly around his shoulders.

"Hurry back now you two," Amy said as she walked both men out the door. "Christmas Eve is not enjoyable if there is just one of us."


	12. Meeting with Strangers

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

"That breakfast was so good," Kevin commented as he was walking the streets of Winnetka with Becky. To the eight year old's dismay, the siblings didn't have enough money for the Christmas Special Breakfast but at least both of them could afford a stack of chocolate chip pancakes that they could share with a cup of hot chocolate. After having his fill of such a large breakfast, Kevin felt that he was going to have to skip lunch. He had eaten so many pancakes than his stomach could handle.

Becky felt the same as her little brother. After eating five pancakes and downing it with some hot chocolate, she felt that her stomach was going to explode. However, Becky couldn't blame herself for eating so many pancakes. That pancake house was the best of the best in Chicago and if she had the chance, she would try every single on of those pancakes. "I couldn't agree more," Becky said whilst she walked, hearing the snow crunch underneath her boots. "So do we have an idea on what we are getting at the store?"

Kevin had made a mental list in his head. There were out of milk, eggs, and fabric softener but to Kevin, that didn't mean that they had to limit themselves to only those three items. They could even get some things that they wanted. "Yeah I do," Kevin spoke and nodded his head to Becky.

"Then let's hurry along and get them, we have plenty of work to do once we get home," Becky said as the two of theme suddenly came upon a small supermarket. The best thing about that was it was very close to home therefore making it a short walk on their way back.

Back at the pancake house, both Becky and Kevin had agreed on how they would spend their day. Two days before, the two of them had done nothing but gorge themselves in junk food, movies, and outwitting those two bandits. Kevin had suggested that they first take care of some of the domestic housework such as doing the dishes, the laundry, and dusting the floors so the house would be clean come Christmas Day. Becky was impressed with her brother's sudden responsibility of taking care of the house. If only their siblings were here to see it, it would be proof that Kevin could do more than just how to not pack a suitcase.

Kevin took a few strides forward and the doors of the supermarket opened up for them. The Christmas music of _Jingle Bell Rock_ was playing throughout speakers of the supermarket the moment that the two McCallister siblings entered. Kevin's eyes looked around from the many people that surrounded the market and then over to one of the carts beside him. He had seen his mother do this all the time. She would always take a cart with her and fill it with the needed groceries and just thinking about it, it didn't look too hard for Kevin to do. He reached over on the handles of the cart and began to push it into the store.

"Do you need any help with that?" Becky asked as she walked alongside him.

"No I got it," Kevin said and began to look at the shelves that were stacked with different types of sweets and candies. It was so tempting to grab each and every single one of those but Kevin had to remember that they were on a small budget with the money that they had and they just couldn't carelessly spend it. Kevin moved right along with the candy aisle and then over to another aisle where he came upon a selection of juices. Orange juice was one that the family drank, mostly around breakfast time, and during times like this, Vitamin C was definitely needed.

Becky wanted to be as helpful as she could towards Kevin so she had herself occupied by looking at the other items that they could find. "I see the milk and eggs," she said as she walked over and picked up a gallon of milk and a carton of eggs.

"Get two at least," Kevin said and pushed the cart towards her.

"Kevin we're not going to bake a wedding cake, one of each is enough," Becky responded with a roll of her eyes. _Just don't start right now_ she thought, hoping that a fight wouldn't erupt between them.

Kevin gave his sister a long stare. "We could be snowed in! Then what do we do?" he challenged her with that question.

"Then we will check the weather and deal with it," Becky said and placed one gallon of milk and the one carton of eggs in the cart.

"Fine, but I am getting one of those microwavable dinners," Kevin said. He had his eyes on that microwavable macaroni and cheese ever since he was last at the supermarket with his mother. Kate had been against the idea of having Kevin or even any one of her children of getting boxed pre-made foods but since neither Kevin or Becky could cook, the eight year old felt that this was really needed.

Becky on the other hand was not a great fan of macaroni and cheese. The way that the cheese coated the pasta reminded her of sticky, yellow, and salty slime and the 'squishing' sound that it made when it was picked up with a fork made Becky hate it even more. "You get your mac and cheese and I'll get something else," she said before going forward and exploring what other foods the aisles had to offer.

Walking up to the grand refrigerator, Kevin pulled it open and reached as high as he could for the box of macaroni and cheese. Being only a child, and short at that, his fingers only lingered a few inches under the box. The eight year old let out a disappointed grunt and decided to give it a second attempt. He stood on the tip of his toes once more but that helped to no avail. Suddenly, the refrigerator door opened next to him and Kevin noticed a woman that had chestnut colored hair and hazel eyes. "Excuse me," Kevin blinked as he looked at her, "can you please give me some help?"

The woman turned her eyes over to see who had spoken to her before she cast her eyes down to the floor. A look of surprise was upon her face at the sight of a young child all alone in the supermarket. "What's the matter honey? Did you lose your parents?" she asked as she looked at him with worry, thinking that he was probably lost.

A little smile came upon the eight year old's lips as he looked at her. "Oh no," he shook his head, "my mom is just waiting out in the car. I was wondering if you could reach that box up there for me," he said as he pointed up to the blue box that rested within the refrigerator.

The woman looked over to the box that he pointed. "Of course," she nodded as her hand clasped upon the box and then held it out to Kevin, "here you go honey. I am just relieved to see that you're not lost."

"No," Kevin said, "I'm just helping out my mom."

"Well I am sure that she's very happy to have a you helping her out," the woman replied.

"Thanks, I do the best that I can," Kevin said and placed the box into the cart. The moment that he did, he looked up when he saw Becky approaching the cart. "What did you get?" he asked.

Becky looked over at the frozen food that was in her hand. "Some fancy dinner meal, whatever it is," she said and threw that into the box. "I don't really like these sort of foods. Too bad we can't cook."

Kevin's eyes widened when Becky said that. He didn't want to give the impression to the woman behind him that they were home alone. Then what would they do if she were to find out? "Don't worry," Kevin said as he gave his sister a hard look, "mom is just too tired to cook today. We'll take care of it."

"But Kevy mom isn't-" Becky was saying until Kevin's sudden interruption.

"Isn't she exhausted enough?!" Kevin exclaimed causing Becky to raise an eyebrow at his sudden outburst. "Now come on, we have to hurry before she comes in and looks for us," he said and pushed the cart towards Becky, causing her to walk backwards until he was well out of her way.

Becky stood there, dumbfounded at what had just happened. _What did just happen_? Becky thought to herself as she stared at Kevin disappearing into the aisle where the fabric softener was sold. Shaking her head and paying no attention to the woman with the chestnut colored hair, she hurried along after Kevin until she found him picking out a bottle of fabric softener. "Okay, what was that all about?" she suddenly asked.

Kevin placed the fabric softener inside the cart and looked at Becky. "There was a woman there who helped me grab the mac and cheese box."

"Was she bothering you?" Becky asked him.

"No," Kevin shook his head, "but she asked if I was lost. I told her that our mom was waiting out in the car. That's why I had to push you out of the way like that."

Kevin had basically told a woman, that they didn't even know, a lie. "Smart thinking," Becky said with a nod of her head.

"I know," Kevin stated rather proudly and smiled to his sister, "now let's get out of here."

* * *

Out of all the things that Amy had expected to see in the supermarket, she had never expected to see such a young boy doing the groceries. And who was that other girl with him? It wasn't difficult for Amy to come to the conclusion that the girl was probably his sister helping him out while he did his round of groceries. Speaking of groceries, Amy didn't even know what to get to prepare a decent Christmas Eve meal for three with the budget that she had. The frozen foods seemed like a good option but she felt that Harry and Marv deserved more than that, even after the tiring 'jobs' that they were going through.

Neither Harry nor Marv had been specific of what their 'jobs' were to Amy, the only description being that those 'jobs' made them tired. Then again, Amy felt that all jobs could make anyone tired. There were moments where Amy wished that she had been successful in finding a job, but all of these job searches had not been successful. It seemed that many jobs required more than just a high school diploma. With a sigh escaping her lips, the woman continued to go on her way to find whatever food she could to create a meal.

Thoughts crossed over her minds on what she could make. She could afford some fruit and make a dessert out of them but for dinner, there were too many possibilities and she didn't know what to pick from those possibilities. "Come on Amy, focus," the woman whispered to herself. There was no time for her to linger around the think. Cooking had a lot of creativity in it and who knew? She could create something delicious that they would all enjoy. Disappointment was something that Amy didn't want to cause towards Harry or Marv. As long as they were satisfied, then she would be as well.

* * *

"There's one over there," Becky whispered as she pointed over to a free aisle.

Kevin turned his head over to where Becky pointed and directed his cart over to the aisle. The woman who was working gave Kevin a strange look, almost as if she was wondering what a child was doing in the place.

"Good afternoon ma'am," Becky greeted her, receiving a small smile from the clerk, as she began to help Kevin place the groceries on the conveyer belt while Kevin took a magazine and began to flip through it.

"Are those microwave dinners any good?" the eight year old suddenly asked when he noticed the two boxes of frozen dinners being checked out.

"I don't know," the clerk replied.

"I'll give them a whirl," Kevin responded and Becky rolled her eyes and smirked at her brother's comment. She found it amusing that her little brother would try and act like a grown up.

A slight amused smile was upon the clerk's lips towards Kevin's use of words. After she was finished checking out the items, she calculated the amount that was due. "$21.83," she said and glanced over to Kevin who handed her the movie. The woman reached over for the money and she couldn't resist but ask. "Are you here all by yourself?"

Kevin's blue eyes widened for a mere second. What was he to say now to her? Quickly, Kevin thought of the same words that he had told that woman who had helped him pick out that box from the refrigerator. "Ma'am I'm eight years old, do you think I would be here _alone_? I don't think so," he said with a shake of his head.

"Would that be your sister?" she asked as she glanced over to Becky.

"Babysitter," Kevin answered, which caused Becky to mentally face palm. "I'm an only child."

"Where's your father?" the clerk asked.

"He's at work," Kevin answered.

"Where's your mom?"

"She's in the car," Kevin said, "we were just going to drop my babysitter off at her house but we both needed some groceries."

"I live on the other side of town," Becky softly spoke, playing along with this tale that Kevin was narrating to the clerk.

The clerk nodded her head towards Becky before looking over to the eight year old boy before her. "And where do you live?"

"I can't tell you that," Kevin responded.

"Why not?"

"Cause you're a stranger," Kevin responded.

It took Becky a lot of will not to let out a gasp when he said it. How could he say something like that to her? Maybe she just wanted to help them. "I'm...I'm sorry about that ma'am," Becky apologized on her younger brother's behalf.

After putting the money in the cash register, a white receipt was suddenly printed with the items that were purchased. The clerk took a hold of the receipt, ripped it from it's place and handed it over to Kevin without uttering another word before she went to put the purchased items into a couple of plastic bags. Instead of placing a couple of items in three or four plastic bags, the clerk pushed them into two bags and placed them on the cart.

"Thanks for your help," Kevin said with his usual bright smile as he pushed the cart out of the aisle and Becky followed after him.

After the two siblings were out of earshot from the clerk, Becky looked over to her brother. "Kevin what is with you? You can't talk to her like that."

"She asked me where I lived," Kevin said to her, "I don't know her, she doesn't know me. I can't tell someone I don't know where I live," Kevin said as if Becky was being educated on such a topic. "You're too gullible sometimes Becky," Kevin said.

Becky was taken aback by her brother's words as she gave him a glare. "Just for that, you're carrying the bags."

"Fine by me," Kevin answered with a shrug and picked up the two overstuffed bags in his hands before journeying on their way back home.


	13. Sugar and Cinnamon

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

The weather was cold enough to spear Marv's flesh as he and Harry rode within the blue plumping van. The taller bandit continued check the heater for what seemed like the hundredth time, but there was no difference. "Is this thing broken?" Marv mumbled as he tried to turn on the heat one more time before turning his eyes over to Harry.

"How should I know?" Harry answered as he shivered in his coat and hat while driving down the streets of Winnetka. He felt his teeth silently clattering against each other when a chill rushed down his spine from this weather. How much he wished that he was back at the apartment and into its welcoming heat, no matter how small it was, but Harry knew that this sacrifice was going to be worth it. The McCallister house was the last one from their heist and all this cold and waiting was going to be worth it.

 _What might we expect this time_? Harry thought to himself when the McCallister home came into view from the far distance. Would there be lights on? Another party? Someone shoveling their driveway? Whatever the case was, it was important that they were extra cautious. Harry remembered when they were almost caught during the first night of their heist and he didn't want that to happen again.

As opposed to Harry's thoughts, Marv's mind still remained on the coldness that was in the car. To Harry's question, Marv only responded by pulling his brown jacket tighter against his shoulders and around his frame. "It's just too cold Harry."

"Deal with it," Harry gruffly responded before shooting his friend a glare. The last thing that Harry wanted to hear was Marv's complaints about the cold season. If Marv thought that he was only one who was suffering through all of this he was wrong, for Harry was going through the same thing. "And we're finally here," Harry said as he pulled up towards the McCallister property but it wasn't until a confused expression came upon his face.

The place seemed eerie silent, like nobody was home. Harry had expected to at least seen somebody outside. With a family that had so many people, they couldn't all just be gathered in one room watching television or whatever it was that they did. "I don't get it," Harry suddenly broke the silence in the van as he squinted towards the house. "Right now it looks like nobody's home. Last night the place was jumping."

Marv squinted at the property. He definitely remembered all of that Christmas music that was blaring from the house and the people that were gathered for the festivity. Even though it was something that neither of the bandits had expected to see, Marv wished that he, Harry, and Amy could do something like that with one another, but when it came to Christmas, there was no bargaining with Harry's opinions about it.

"Go and check it out," Marv suddenly heard his partner tell him but he didn't budge from his seat for a mere couple of seconds, which was the moment that he noticed Harry expectantly looking at him.

"Now?" Marv asked.

Annoyed and throwing his arms in the air Harry yelled, "no tomorrow egghead, now! Go ahead!"

Frowning at his friend's outburst, Marv slid out of the van and shut the door leaving Harry alone in the van. No matter how long Harry had been good friends with Marv, his slight stupidity irritated him. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Harry leaned back against his seat and waited for Marv's return and hopefully with any news about whether they could go into the house. Speaking of the house, Harry's mind wandered over to the many items that he had observed when he was 'checking the security.' There were plenty of beautiful paintings, objects that seemed to have cost more than what they had pawned off, and many more. Items that were the most tempting for Harry to steal were the jewelry. When the bandit had spoken with Kate McCallister before he had left, he had noticed the pair of earrings that she had been wearing as the dangled and sparkled within the lighting. Seeing that, Harry had come to the conclusion that not only did that woman possess a good amount of jewelry but it was highly likely that the family also had many items that were worth a whole lot.

However, Harry knew that his temptations were going to have to wait. It all depended on how long it took Marv to return.

* * *

Inside the house, both Becky and Kevin had arrived a little earlier with their groceries. An incident had occurred before their arrival home, which include the items falling through the plastic bags and onto the ground. Since Becky had punished Kevin into holding the bags, she decided the her little brother had been punished long enough so she took some of the heavier items in her arms and assisted him. At least home had not been too far away.

After completing some of the domestic tasks, one of them being the laundry, the two siblings were in the kitchen. Becky was putting away the groceries while Kevin was washing some dishes from last night. "And lastly the milk," Becky said as she stored the milk in the proper place of the refrigerator. "How about we have some lunch once we're finished?" Becky suggested.

"I'm not really hungry," Kevin answered, "I feel like I just came back from having breakfast."

Becky lightly chuckled upon hearing that. That pancake house really lived up to its standards on serving the best pancakes in town. "I think I'll skip lunch too," she said in agreement with Kevin, "we need to keep some room for din-who the heck is that?" her voice suddenly dropped in a whisper and her eyes widened at the shadow that made it's way to their door.

Looking at his sister, Kevin slowly turned his head and a light gasp escaped from his mouth when he noticed the shadow. Could it be...no it couldn't! _It's only my imagination_ Kevin thought as he tried to keep himself calm while Becky remained frozen in her place, afraid to make any noise that would alert their uninvited guest. Suddenly, both siblings looked down to the dog door when a shoe appeared and fell on the floor with a clatter. Becky flinched at the sound of it and took a step back when a hand shot through to retrieve it.

On instinct, Kevin quickly grabbed a hold of the remote and turned on the television. Becky turned her eyes when she noticed the picture showing up on the television screen. It was that same gangster movie that had scared Kevin and it was the same scene where the man's partner was murdered. What Kevin was up to right now, Becky didn't know.

" _Get the hell outta here_ ," the main character's voice shot out of the television.

* * *

"What the hell is taking him so long?" Harry grumbled under his breath as he continued to wait for Marv's return. Even though Harry hadn't been waiting for hours on end, he couldn't shake off the feeling that Marv had been caught.

Marv Merchants wasn't one of the greatest cat burglars especially at being quiet but if something had happened to him, Harry was at a roadblock. Should he just abandon his mission and leave Marv there or go and rescue him from his captors? Leaving Marv behind wouldn't be an option at all! What kind of a partner, and friend, would he be? Marv had the tendency to be a bumbling thief but he was Harry's one and only friend.

"This is rid-" Harry was saying as he was about to get out of the van until he noticed Marv frantically running towards the van. The look on his face seemed like he had seen a ghost and his breath was short from the running and whatever he had seen. "What's happened?" Harry asked as he looked at Marv.

"Someone just got blown away!" Marv explained, "they beat us to the job, someone's in there!"

* * *

Kevin looked at the scattered remains of the firecrackers that had exploded from the red pot that he had placed in front of the door. The shadow was there no longer and that was more than enough to make Kevin think that he had been scared off. Becky on the other hand was petrified in her place from many factors that had just happened. The shadow, the shoe, the television, and the firecrackers.

"Hey," Kevin said as he tugged at her arm and she looked down at him. "Don't worry Becky, he's gone."

The teenager shook her head and looked down at Kevin. Out of the both of them, she should have been the one to not be so fearful of this, but the tables had turned. Kevin was the one who was being very brave and knew exactly what to do. Kneeling down in front of her brother, she placed her hands on his shoulders and looked at him. "That was some quick and smart thinking," she said. Even though there was a smile on her face, there was fear in her eyes.

Kevin shrugged his shoulders as if this was something that he had normally done throughout his childhood. "It was nothing," he said, "we just gotta use what we have around the house."

"And using a gangster film and firecrackers was enough to scare him off?" Becky asked, feeling a bit skeptical about the outcome of the situation. "I don't think it did."

"You need to stop worrying," Kevin said and gave her a light push with his hand, "it's Christmas Eve and we still have plenty of things that we need to do to get ready. We have to get out the decorations, the stockings, and find a tree."

"And just where are we going to find a tree genius?" Becky asked and placed her hands upon her hips. If they were going to have to go to another store to get it, Becky wasn't up for going outside once again, especially when it was only going to get colder.

Kevin pointed to the back of his shoulder with his thumb. "Our backyard. Where else? I don't think we even have enough money to buy one anyway."

"You do know that we have a Christmas tree in the basement," Becky said. Why go through all the trouble to take down a Christmas tree when they already had a fake one downstairs. Sure it would take a while to bring up such a cumbersome tree to the first floor of the house, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't decorate it to make it all the more beautiful.

However, Kevin disagreed with Becky's suggestion. To him, a Christmas tree needed to be real and that one that was in the basement was as fake as the nose on one of Kate's friends whenever they came to visit their mother for an afternoon coffee. "No. A tree needs to real. What's the meaning of Christmas when you don't have a real tree?"

Well, that was quite the question that made Becky think. Would it be a fake Christmas after all if the tree wasn't real? Whatever thoughts were going through that eight year old head of his, Becky believed they were just too complicated for her own teenager mind to even ponder about. "Okay, okay," she said and held up her arms in surrender. "Fine, go get that tree."

With his sister's consent, that was exactly what Kevin was going to do. He had noticed a perfect little tree that he could cut down and then decorate it with Becky if she wanted to. After all, he wanted to have the best Christmas that he could with as much as he could, even though there were moments when he dearly missed his parents and his brothers and sisters.

* * *

Back at the apartment, Amy looked over at the small amounts of food that she had managed to buy. At least none of the groceries were frozen dinners that she, Harry, and Marv would usually have during the week. Amy would have loved to have bought a big enough turkey for the three of them, but hopefully the medium small ham was enough for them to enjoy, along with a side of roasted vegetables, some old age wine that had been sitting in the cupboard, and some roasted apples with sugar and cinnamon. That was, _if_ she had some sugar and cinnamon.

Just then, a knock was heard on the door and Amy's eyes lightened up. She had not been expecting anyone at this time but if it was Harry and Marv, then that would be quite the pleasant surprise. Amy quickly hurried to the door and once she placed her hand on the doorknob and pulled it open, she was surprised yet a tad disappointed that it wasn't her husband nor her friend. "Oh, hello Tracy." Tracy Krinkle was one of the neighbors that resided on the first floor of the apartment. She had long, lush brown hair, brown eyes, and worked as a grocery store clerk. "I thought you were at work," Amy said and pulled the door a little wider for her to enter inside.

"I got off a little early today," Tracy said as she took the liberty and walked inside the apartment. "It was because I was planning on my picking my parents up from the airport but my father just called and said that they will return sometime tomorrow. A woman was asking my mother if she could switch her ticket with theirs so she could return home to her son."

"Oh," Amy said before walking over to the kitchen and coming back with a small glass of wine, something that she usually did with Tracy when Harry wasn't home. "She seemed to be in quite the hurry."

"Apparently according to my father who got some information from her she had left her eight year old son home alone," Tracy said and thanking Amy with a smile, she took the glass of wine and took a sip. "Which reminds me, I did see an eight year old kid today."

"How do you know he's eight?" Amy asked.

"It wasn't difficult for him to tell me," Tracy said, "he was with his babysitter."

Amy remained quiet for a minute as she went deep into her thoughts. She remembered seeing a child in the grocery store whom she helped and then another child, older than the other who had tagged along. "I think the 'babysitter' must have been his sister."

Tracy turned her head and looked over to Amy. "You saw them too? Well, I'm not surprised that he would lie to me. Especially after he called me a 'stranger.'"

"And is that why you look so upset about?" Amy lightly laughed as she gave her friend a little push, causing her to chuckle as well. "He's just a kid."

Tracy shrugged a shoulder at that. "I was taken aback by it. But after what my father had said about that moment who wanted to get home to her son, I think that was the kid that I saw who, might I add, said to me that his mother was waiting out in the car." Taking a sip of her wine, Tracy turned her eyes to Amy. "I just hope that they made it home safely."

Amy gave her friend a pat on the shoulder. "Hey you tried your best and I'm sure that they did make it back. There's just something about the Eve of Christmas that gives peace and protection to everyone, especially children."

"Do you always have this sort of Christmas spirit?" Tracy asked as a laugh escaped her lips.

"Hey one of us in this apartment has to be," Amy defended herself with a smile, "which reminds me, do you have some sugar and cinnamon."

"I believe that I do," Tracy said and placed the wine glass back on the table, "looks like you'll be having quite the homemade feast while I dine out with my boyfriend."

"To each her own," Amy said and escorted her neighbor out the door and began to get the food prepared on Christmas Eve.


	14. Caught Christmas-Handed

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

 **I would also like to thank the readers for the reviews thus far.**

* * *

Harry and Marv had been awaiting for hours for one the 'gangsters' to come out of the house. According to Marv's encounter and what he had described, both of the bandits agreed that it was necessary for them to remain at the McCallister's property, in concern of them being the witnesses to the whole 'crime scene' that had 'occurred.' However, waiting for hours on end had made the bandits very tired causing Marv to lean back against his seat and Harry to slump over on the steering wheel. The bandit didn't know how long he had been asleep when a sudden noise of an object being dragged out in the snow awakened him from his nap. Lifting up his head, Harry squinted and took notice of a young boy pulling a ladder behind him and setting it up against a tree where he began to saw it down.

At first, Harry couldn't believe what he just saw. All this time and they were being scammed by a child? Harry got a better look once more at the young boy and it was that same kid that they had chased down the day before. However, this time there was no 'babysitter' in sight. Not that Harry believed that part of the story when that ginger headed teenager narrated it to them during that morning. "Marv, Marv," Harry said and shook his friend awake, "look at this."

Marv stood up from his seat and looked over to the little blond boy. His vision slowly adjusted to the sunlight and he made out the details of the small child who was beginning to pull that little tree with him and into the house. "I think we're getting scammed by a kindergarten," Marv heard Harry said and a wide smile came upon his lips.

* * *

As Kevin was preoccupied with cutting down the tree, Becky had run down into the basement and was finding as many Christmas ornaments as she could. There were plenty of Christmas baubles that her family had collected and all of different designs and colors. The stockings were also important to hang by the fireplace. Who knows? Perhaps Santa had more items to give to the family. Thinking of Santa made Becky chuckle at some memories that she had of that. When she, Linnie, Megan, Buzz, and Jeff were young, it had been a tradition that Peter and Kate would take them over to Santa's Workshop, a small place where they had to wait in a long line just to meet the jolly man and tell them what they wished for. When Kevin was born and old enough to come with them, Becky had felt that her belief for Santa had been slowly disappearing and that same feeling had been happening with her siblings. Out of all of them, Kevin was the only one who had retained that belief. Of course, Kevin was still young to believe but even when either Jeff or Buzz teased him about Santa being only a legend, Kevin didn't hesitate to defend the one and only man that bought the spirit of Christmas as well as the presents.

"Good times, good times," Becky said to herself and gathered as many decorations as she could before heading upstairs to Kevin.

While Becky was gathering the ornaments, Kevin had neatly set up the Christmas tree by the fireplace of their home. Kevin had imagined it that it was bette for when Santa dropped by in the fireplace, he wouldn't have to walk too far to place the presents under the tree and there would also be some milk and cookies set out for him to enjoy too after his long journey. "Did you get them?" Kevin asked and made his way over to the many ornaments that Becky had selected. Christmas baubles, lights, plastic candy canes to hang from the branches, and the stockings.

"Do you need any help putting them up?" Becky asked.

Kevin shook his head. "No thanks, I've seen mom do it plenty of times. How hard can it be?" he asked. Looking over at the tree, Kevin thought that it was better to start off by circling the string of lights around the tree and then decorate it with baubles and the other ornaments. He picked up a box and fished out the string of lights only to discover that he didn't know where to start on untying the lights. "Great, how did mom do this?" he mumbled and tried to work his way around the lights until he was able to untie one end which led up to the other lights falling onto the floor. Satisfied with that work, Kevin snaked the string of lights around the tree and placed the end of the cord into the power outlet where all of the different colored lights began to illuminate around the tree.

Seeing that Kevin didn't need help with anything at the moment, Becky still wanted to occupy herself with a small duty. "You know what? I'll make us some hot chocolate. Or I'll try my best."

"Careful not to let the milk spill everywhere," Kevin said and looked at his sister with a small smirk upon his lips. Knowing his sister and her lack of cooking skills, that would probably be something that might happen. After seeing Becky rolling her eyes, Kevin went back to work and this time, he picked up a small box filled with Christmas baubles and began to hang them upon the small branches of the tree. It was amazing how the decorations transformed an ordinary looking tree into something shimmering and beautiful and that's just what Christmas was. It was supposed to be shimmering and beautiful.

Suddenly Kevin looked up when he heard a rattling noise coming from the kitchen and he shook his head. It seemed that Becky was preoccupied looking for a small pot for the hot chocolate. If Kate was at home, Kevin knew that she was going to have a fit if she saw all those pots and pans disorganized. With many things at home, Kate was a perfectionist and that not only included the pots and pans, but also dinner, furniture, clothing, and many other items around the house. Perhaps Linnie took after her mother when it came to perfection.

"Ah-ha!" Becky's voice suddenly rang out of the kitchen, indicating that she had found the proper pot for the hot chocolate.

"You know you could have just used the microwave," Kevin called out into the kitchen before placing another Christmas bauble onto the tree.

"Well now you tell me!" Becky yelled from the kitchen before letting out a frustrated noise and placing the small pot onto the cold tiled surface of the kitchen island. Why didn't she think of that before? A microwave would have been a whole lot simpler than a pot. Sometimes, Becky felt like she was hopeless in many things and making hot chocolate was one of them. "Thank God I'm not being tested on this," she mumbled to herself due to her experiences with a recent cooking class. Taking a cooking class as an elective, Becky thought that it would have been a whole lot of fun that was, until she had met the teacher. Not only was the teacher an impatient woman but she would always degrade her students whenever they were given an assignment. It would have been a wise choice to heed to Megan's warning about that specific professor.

Live and learn. That's what life was about after all for the teenager.

* * *

Meanwhile out in the cold, after witnessing that little kid outside, both Harry and Marv had agreed to do a little investigation on what was going on. The two men made their way around the house to where they found a nearby window that had some faint light illuminating from it. "Stay right there," Harry directed Marv to remain out of sight while he got a better look at was going on. From within, Harry could see that there were plenty of Christmas ornaments, a tree, and there was that little kid who had been tricking them all along!

A smirk formed on the bandit's lips when he saw that child but that wasn't one of the only things that did. He had managed to hear his muffled words calling out for his father but it wasn't long until a familiar looking redheaded girl appeared into the room. _The supposed babysitter_ Harry thought before he pulled away from window and turned his attention onto Marv. "Remember those two kids we saw yesterday?" he asked, "they live there."

Marv looked over at his partner. Those kids had been at this house all along? "Well if they're there then their parents must be too."

Harry shook his head at that. "They're home alone," he smirked, which caused his partner to reflect that same smile before Harry motioned for them over to their van.

* * *

The moment that Becky had heard Kevin say 'Dad can you come and help me' she had rushed into the kitchen only to come into full view of the bandit that was standing right by the window and looking inside. A gasp escaped from her lips and her eyes then fell upon Kevin who gently motioned with his hand for her to remain calm. He didn't want to give those bandits the satisfaction that he was afraid them.

The moment that bandit disappeared, Kevin took off on the second floor of the house and Becky rushed after him. She didn't know what her little brother was up to but one thing that she knew was that they were in danger, and she didn't want to leave her little brother's side. Becky rushed over to Kevin about to take him in her arms but the eight year old motioned her away. If Becky was there beside him, she might risk giving his presence away to the two men that he was trying to eavesdrop on.

"We'll grab a bite to eat and we'll come back when it's nine o'clock!" he heard the short man say to his partner, "that way it's dark."

Tonight. Nine o'clock. The dark. How much Kevin wished that he had his mother right by his side at this moment. He pulled the door of the window closed and then sank onto the floor.

"Kevin?" Becky said and walked over to him, finally having the opportunity to take him into an embrace.

Even though Becky was only his sister, Kevin melted into her hug and wrapped his arms around her. That moment of fright that he was feeling was temporarily replaced by Becky's presence but after hearing that man's malevolent voice, it only bought more fright to the child. "I wish mom was here," Kevin whispered as he remained by Becky's side.

Even though Becky wasn't close enough to the window to hear what those men were saying, she only assumed that it had been something terrible. Had they been talking about them? What they would do to the two siblings? Becky didn't even want to think about it! If those men were planning on anything, Becky could try and take on the short man but she knew that she would be no match with the other one. _Wishful thinking, I can't even hurt a fly_ Becky thought to herself, immediately stopping her fantasies of kung-fu fighting against those men. "Did they say something that frightened you?" she asked and looked down to Kevin.

Kevin swallowed and nodded his head. "One of them said that they would be back tonight at nine o'clock," he answered. "They're the two men that we saw Becky before we ran into the church and the ones that we scared off yesterday with the mannequins."

Becky froze when Kevin said that, all those events suddenly coming into her mind. _Looks like the 'babysitter façade' didn't work either_ Becky thought as she remembered telling the short bandit that she was only a babysitter. "What are we going to do?" Becky asked as she looked at her little brother with worry in her eyes. Out of the two them, Becky felt that she should be the one to remain strong but she was frightened, more than Kevin seemed to be.

As opposed to Becky, Kevin tried to keep himself calm, even though he felt that fear from within. There had to be something for both of them to do to escape these bandits and to show them with whom they were dealing with. So it was nine o'clock that they wanted to come at? Then let them come! Kevin knew that he was going to be ready for them. With this sudden wave of confidence rushing towards Kevin, he looked up at Becky. "We have many hours until nine o'clock. Get me some white paper, pencil, and markers, and I'll show you what we'll do."


	15. Sentimental Christmas Eve

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

"For the record," Marv suddenly spoke up within the silence that surrounded them in the van, "I'm not scared of the dark." It had irritated the bandit after Harry had accused him of being afraid of the dark. In contrast, Marv had his fear of the dark when he had first began this business with Harry, mostly due to hearing noises from nocturnal animals or the fear of being caught, but he had slowly grown out of that.

Harry, however, wasn't even listening to his friend. His mind had been stuck on those kids that they had seen in that house. It seems that their job had not only become easier after what they had been through getting to that house, but they had hit the jackpot with those kids. What they would do with those kids, Harry didn't know yet but what he did know was that they were going to hit that house tonight, especially during the hours when children would normally be asleep.

Marv on the other hand was a bit reluctant about the scheme. He wanted to be of help to Harry and get his share of the loot, but they were dealing with kids. What if they had seen them? Would they be calling the cops? The last thing that Marv wanted was to be thrown in jail. It would be the first time in his life ever since he had begun this job with Harry and throughout those times, he had feared that they would eventually be caught. That fear had diminished after so many years, but none of their heists had involved children. "I'm not too sure about this Harry," Marv spoke up once again. "I mean, they're only kids."

"That's the point Marv," Harry spoke, irritated that Marv had interrupted him from his thoughts, "they're kids! What're they going to do to us? Don't think too much of it! We'll be in, grab the loot, and get out. Like I said, I have had my eyes on that house and I ain't gonna let two kiddies get in the way!"

Marv heard the irritation in Harry's voice. He was aware about how much Harry wanted to steal from that house and there was no point in continuing this argument with him. When Harry set his mind towards something, he wanted to finish it and this house was no exception whether there were children in there or not. "What are we going to do after?" Marv then asked.

Harry had been thinking about that. The families were bound to call the police after their homes had been raided and that would put the both of them at risk. "We leave Chicago and settle some place else," Harry answered, "we can't stay here after we've hit the Silver Tuna."

"Where will we go?" Marv asked.

"I have yet to think about that Marv," Harry replied. That was one of the problems. Where would they go? There were so many places where they could go and hide and perform other heists but that location had to be a good one. One where it was fully populated and where the chances of recognizing them would be low. There was a problem that remained in this whole situation...and that was Amy. What would she think after she would find out the fact that they needed to leave Chicago? If Harry knew better, Amy was a very curious woman and her cursorily was something that Harry needed to be cautious of. One slip of the tongue from either him or Marv and the whole scheme was over, not to mention his marriage with her.

As if Marv had been reading Harry's thoughts he asked, "what about Amy?"

At the question, Harry gripped tightly onto the steering wheel and looked ahead of him. "What about her?" he asked as if she had never crossed his mind.

"What would she think?" Marv continued, "we have been keeping this a secret from her the whole time."

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious Marv," Harry replied, slowly growing irritated by his friend's words. "And you know well that we can't tell her about this whole thing!" How they were going to keep this whole thing hidden from her, that was something that Harry was still trying to think about. After all of the plans that he had gone through, this was something that he needed to think hard about. He just couldn't abandon her and leave her here in Chicago while he and Marv simply disappeared.

"Will she find out?" Marv asked.

"What is this, twenty questions?" Harry shot back at his fellow friend and sent his a harsh glare before turning his eyes back on the road. However, that was one of the main problems. What if she did find out? Would she be against their whole scheme or join them in? _Nah_ _there's no way in hell that she would join us_! Harry thought to himself at the idea of Amy joining them on their heists. She didn't seem to be that type of person to have a life of crime.

At Harry's snap, Marv remained silent throughout the whole ride. It was Christmas Eve and they only have a couple of hours until nine o'clock. He felt the van come to a stop and the apartment was right into their view and Marv was relieved to see it. He had the sudden urge to just jump into his bed and sleep the night away, or until Harry would wake him up for their heist.

"Let's go," Harry said as he shut off the van and bundled up in his coat and scarf and made his way into the apartment. Marv followed after Harry as the two of them made their way up the stairs and over to the floor of their apartment.

"What's that smell?" Marv suddenly asked as a delicious aroma wafted over to his nose and he sniffed the air. His eyes suddenly brightened at the thought of a home cooked meal. During those past couple of nights, it had been either fast food or Chinese food. Marv didn't mind so much on those types of cuisines, but it had been so long ever since he had a decent meal.

Harry stopped short at the idea of there even being a Christmas Eve meal. How had Amy been able to afford it? Had she gotten her hands on those three hundred dollars that Harry hid underneath some objects in a dresser after she had been sleeping? He hoped that wasn't the case! Placing his hand on the doorknob Harry pulled open the door and right in the little dining room, there was only a small assortment of food along with Amy.

The woman before them was dressed in an old black dress, one that was far too familiar to Harry. When the door had opened, Amy looked up at the two men with a smile. "You're finally here," she said as she walked up to Marv and gave him a warm hug and then wrapped her arms around Harry. "And just in time too."

"How did you manage to get all of this?" was the first thing that Harry said.

Amy was taken aback by his words, but she knew that she shouldn't have been too surprised about that. Harry was quite the unpredictable man. "Well, I did have a little bit of money-"

"What money?" Harry interrupted.

Amy titled her head to the side at his imposing question. "Some money that I was trying to save up from my last job," Amy answered him, "you know? That waitress job that I was laid off from?" she said as she looked at Harry. "I had some of that and I spent it on a little Christmas Even dinner. It's not much but-" she was about to say when Marv interrupted it.

"It's remarkable!" the tall man exclaimed, "isn't it Harry?" he gave him a light smack on the arm as if to tell him not say any wise-cracks to his wife. Marv knew that it wasn't any of his business on what Harry and Amy did, but for one thing she was a friend of his just like Harry was, and it was also Christmas Eve.

"Yeah, I guess," Harry replied and sent Marv a glare for hitting him on the arm.

Amy looked up at Marv and gave him a warm smile. "Thank you for your words Marv." She had other words at the tip of her mouth but she bit her tongue to stop herself from saying them. She would have liked a little appreciation from Harry but that wasn't one of the many things that was bothering her. "Well, wash up and I will join you for dinner soon," she said to them before she fast paced over to the bedroom that she shared with Harry.

Seeing the way that she walked, Harry shook his head believing that it was how she felt towards his attitude. "Now what?" he mumbled under his breath and looked over to the room whose door was shut.

"Look at what you-" Marv was about to say but got interrupted.

"Shut up and wash up!" Harry snapped at him before he took the lead and marched over to the bedroom where Amy was. As he walked in, he noticed her sitting at the edge of the bed with her back turned to him. Harry wasn't the type of person to apologize to anybody about anything and he wasn't going to start doing it now. "Amy look," Harry said and shut the door behind him before approaching her. He noticed Amy shaking her head before he even said anything. "I haven't even said anything! Why're you shaking your head?" he asked a bit loudly than he had intended to.

Getting up from the bed, Amy whipped around and looked at him. "Harry," she said and immediately approached him, "do you...do you know that it's been eight years since we...since we lost it?" she asked as she bit her lower lip and without thinking, placed a hand on her stomach.

At first, Harry was confused by what she meant. Lost...it? Lost what? But it wasn't long until he had long realized what she was meaning by that. Looking at the dress that she wore, it was the same one that she had worn ten years ago. "Amy," Harry said, his voice low and every bit of anger that was in there was gone. "Don't think about it. Not right now."

Amy looked down at her's and Harry's shoes that were planted on the ground. "Eight years," she said in a low voice feeling water rising up in her eyes, "it would have been eight."

Harry grabbed a hold of her hands and looked at her. "Stop thinking about it," he said to her, "don't be like you were eight years ago." When it had happened, Harry had been there during that time. He remembered how distraught Amy had been that she had began to blame herself for it. That dark place that she had been in her mind had taken Harry a long time to get her out of it. Every Christmas Eve she had remembered about that fateful day, but it had never been as bad as this.

"It was my fault," she said in a hushed tone of voice and felt a tear beginning to roll down her face.

"No, stop it," Harry said and bought his hand over to the side of her face where he swiped the tear away, "what happened was not your fault, alright? C'mere honey," he said and enveloped his arms around her in an embrace.

Amy didn't hesitate and let him take her into a hug and she wrapped her arms around him in return. Sentimental person or not, even the bandit had his rare moments of sharing them. It wasn't long until she pulled away from Harry and looked at him. "Sorry," she apologized and wiped her eyes away, "it's not a good way to start Christmas Eve, is it?"

"Just as long as you're okay, it will be a fine Christmas Eve," he said.

Those words took Amy by surprise. For someone who said that he hated Christmas this was something that she didn't expect, but it was very sweet of him. Taking a deep breath and shaking her thoughts away from her mind, she looked at Harry. "Let's go and have some dinner. I think Marv is waiting for us."

"Unless he ate everything before we got there," Harry added and followed Amy out of the bedroom and to the small dining room for their Christmas dinner.


	16. Christmas Wishes and Kisses

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

That was it. The sun had long set and there was the darkness that surrounded Kevin and Becky in their home. Looking over at the drawing scheme that Kevin had sketched out and colored in, it seemed like something out of both the Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry. Becky wondered if those shows were something that inspired her brother to create such contraptions within their home. Not only did they look comical to the teen's eyes but they also looked like they would hurt. "Don't you think we're going a bit too far with it?" Becky suddenly asked as she turned her eyes from the drawing and over to Kevin.

Kevin on the other hand didn't think that they were going far at all. In fact, it would show them just with whom they were dealing with. Megan might have called Kevin helpless two nights ago, but Kevin was anything but that. "No we're not," Kevin answered and looked over to Becky, "we gave them a chance to leave us alone but they wouldn't. This out final chance to show them that they can't just barge into our house and take our things!"

"And did it ever cross your mind to call the police?" Becky asked.

Kevin had thought of that, but that didn't mean that he was going to do it right at the beginning. "That would to be too easy. Plus, what if they come and find the police already there? They could be gone and they would never be caught." Seeing that his older sister was still unsure about this whole scheme, Kevin wanted to make sure that she would follow with the plan. "Think about it Becks," he said and received a frown from her. 'Becks' was a nickname that Buzz had given to her when they were the same age as Kevin and she had detested that name right until this day. "Those guys need to be in jail and in a way, we're helping the cops catch them."

 _You got this all planned out haven't you_? Becky wanted to say to her little brother but chose to not say more. She didn't think that this plan was a part of helping the police but Kevin already had his mind set out on doing what he wanted to do. At that, Becky had nothing to do about it no matter how much she would try and persuade him. "Should we try and set up the traps right now?" she asked him.

After designing the scheme, Kevin had another situation in his mind. It was Christmas Eve and it was a very special night for one man that Kevin believed in and he wanted to pay him a visit. There was a little house where a man would be dressed up as Santa Claus and families would go and pay him a visit. Kevin knew that the person who worked there was not the _real_ Santa Claus, but he knew that the person worked for him, and that was as close as Kevin would get to the man that he believed in. "I want to pay a visit to Santa," Kevin said.

Becky knew really well which Santa, Kevin meant. Looking outside of the window, she noticed that the sun had completely disappeared and the light blue sky had turned a dark lavender color. It was only going to get dark during the upcoming minutes. "Kevin it's getting dark out," she said and looked back to her little brother. "Shouldn't we be setting the traps and waiting for them?"

"Becky," Kevin said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at his older sister. "We have plenty of time and in that time, I want to pay Santa a visit. He's the one person that keeps promises and makes them happen."

"And what promise is it that you want to make?" Becky asked.

"I want our family back for Christmas," Kevin said, "everyone of them." The fun and games had lasted for Kevin but the thought of never seeing his family again was something that had been at the back of his mind and he didn't want that. He loved his family, no matter how annoying they were. They were the ones who were there for him when he needed them the most and now that the holidays were here and after hearing the bandits' plans, he needed them there with him.

Becky let out a sigh as she reached out her arm and hung it around Kevin's shoulders before pulling him close for a hug. She missed her parents and siblings too after these past days. Even though it had been only a day and a half, it felt forever to Becky. "Go put your coat, hat, scarf, and mitts on," Becky said and gave her brother a pat on his shoulder before smiling down to him, "we have to pay a visit to jolly Saint Nick."

* * *

The dinner may not have been much like the usual Christmas dinners that families had, but it had been delightful enough for the bandits to enjoy. After having finished dinner, Marv decided to go and get some sleep. Not only did he feel a bit tired but the food had done his effect on him and he felt that needed to be fresh and ready for the robbery. Harry on the other hand was sitting on the couch in the living room, trying to get some reception with the antenna of the television while Amy washed the dishes.

"Come on you mother..." Harry grumbled under his breath as he tried to get some at least an image on the television but all he got was nothing but a black and white screen. "Damn it!"

"Fighting with the television is not going to make it work," Amy said after she came out of the kitchen and over to the living room. However, it was quite the amusing sight to see him deal with it.

"Would you like to give it a try?" Harry turned his head and looked at her.

The woman let out a sigh after hearing that voice of irritation once again, but after all of those years she had gotten used to it. "I would rather not," Amy replied, "I am too tired to even deal with _that_ ," she said before she said as she spun on her heel and walked over to the bedroom. Just like Marv, she wanted to go to bed after spending all of that time cooking and cleaning. No matter how tired she felt, she was glad that they had enjoyed the little Christmas Eve dinner.

"I need to get out of this dress," she whispered to herself and reached inside the closet for her pajamas. Standing up on the tips of her toes, she reached over to the light pink colored pajamas and pulled them towards her. Not only did she receive her pajamas, but a white box fell onto the floor with a thud. The lid remained skewed on the box and a black colored material peeked out of it. Amy threw her pajamas on the bed and knelt before the box and took off the lid and reached inside where she pulled out a black colored police hat and noticed the police uniform that was underneath the hat. She had never before seen this uniform in her home before, and with it being boxed up made it look very suspicious.

Footsteps suddenly came towards her bedroom as he door opened and Harry appeared inside. "Amy, what the hell-" he stopped short and noticed the black hat that she holding in her hands. "Where'd you get that?"

"I found it up there," Amy said and pointed to the top shelf of the closet. "What is this? Why do we have a police uniform in the closet?"

Harry knew that he had to think up of something fast before Amy found out the _real_ reason as to why he was in that uniform. He could say that it belonged to Marv but there were two problems with that lie. He would never rat out his best friend and the uniform was too small to even fit him. "Amy," Harry slowly said and approached her with his hand out towards the police hat, "just give that back."

"This?" Amy pointed to the hat, "oh you want this? Not unless I get an answer," she said and hid the hat behind her back.

"I'm in no mood to explain," Harry said and marched towards her with his hand still out towards the hat, "give it back."

"You're never in the mood for anything," Amy said and cornered herself over to the bed where she could try and keep the hat secure.

In contrast to that, Harry placed his hands right next to her on the headboard of the bed and glared at her. "Give it back Amy." He was not the man who would kid around when he wanted something, but Amy was the opposite of that.

Rolling her eyes, she held out the police hat and placed it onto his head. "Hey," she said as her eyes brightened, "that looks really good on you. Am I under arrest...Officer Lime?" she asked as she reached over with her hands and took a hold of his shirt before slightly pulling him towards her.

Taken aback by her actions, Harry frowned when she pulled him towards her. Taking a good look at his wife before him, his features slightly softened. No matter how much they had gone through in the past, no matter how much they argued, and no matter how much he lied to her, she was his wife and he just couldn't bear the thought of losing her no matter how insistent she could be. "That you are Mrs. Lime," Harry answered her question, playing along with her.

He took notice of a small smile upon her lips as she looked up at him, her eyes never losing that shine that they had. "Oh?" she asked as she playfully rose an eyebrow, "on what charges?"

"For being so damn beautiful," the man answered before he lowered his lips onto hers.

* * *

On the walk over to Santa, Kevin pulled his coat tightly around his shoulders. The night was cold but the walk over to the little house was going to be worth it. As both Becky and Kevin got there, the lights in the little home were dimmed and a worker who was dressed up like an elf was just closing up. Even though this was after the hours, Kevin was not going to lose his chance into getting his wish. "Excuse me," Kevin said as he walked up to the woman, "is he still in there?" he asked and motioned his head towards the little house.

The woman looked over her shoulder before taking notice of the worker dressed up as Santa tending over to his car. "He's over there, better hurry up is you still want to talk to him," she said as she looked at the two siblings with a smile. "Have a Merry Christmas."

"Thanks," Kevin thanked the woman before hurrying up over to the man with Becky. "Santa wait up!" Kevin yelled as he ran over to the man. An aroma of smoke hit over his nose as the man discarded the cigarette and wafted the air around them with his hand. No matter how much he did it, the aroma was still there, but Kevin was not going to lose his chance at getting his wish.

Seeing how much in a hurry that man was, Becky looked over to him. "Do you have sometime sir?"

"I got a little after-part I gotta go to," the man answered, "what'd you kids want?" he asked them, hoping that they would cut to the chase.

"I know that you're not the real Santa Claus," Kevin said."

"What makes you say that?" the man asked as he took notice of the fake beard that he was supposed to be wearing but had neglected to do so, "just out of curiosity?" he asked before brining the beard underneath his nose, causing Becky to giggle.

"I'm old enough to know how it works," Kevin said to him, "but I also know that you do work for him and I'd like it if you give him a message."

"Shoot," the man said.

"My name is Kevin McCallister, 671 Lincoln Boulevard," Kevin said as Becky widened her eyes at the information that he had just given to a stranger.

"Kevin," she whispered as she gave her little brother a gently push on the arm but he paid no heed to that.

In Kevin's eight year old mind, he wanted this wish badly than anything that he ever wanted before. "This is very important. Can you please tell him that instead of presents, I just want my family back. No toys but Peter, Kate, Buzz, Meghan, Linnie, and Jeff...and my aunts and my cousins. And if he has time, my Uncle Frank."

The man, being the stranger that he was, found this wish to be very different than from what the other children had told him. The children that he had seen had asked for toys or cars or even a spaceship but this one was very different. Never had any of the other children wished for their families to come back to them. Perhaps this little kid before him understood the meaning of Christmas after all. "I'll see what I can do," the man said and nodded his head towards the two siblings.

"Thanks," Kevin said and looked up at Becky. "Let's go back home Becky."

"Thank you very much mister," Becky thanked the man as she followed alongside Kevin. She didn't know if the man would keep his word towards Kevin's wish, but even she knew that Christmastime was when wishes definitely came true.


	17. Peacefulness and Plans

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

The small journey to Santa Clause hadn't been as bad as Becky had expected. Never before had she not any of her siblings been out in the dark at a time like tonight, but for Kevin she knew that she had to do it for her brother's peace of mind. At a time like tonight if anyone of her siblings had been late at home, they would have been in great trouble with their parents. It reminded Becky of the time that Buzz had come home late an hour after curfew after visiting a friend of his. There wasn't anything inappropriate that Buzz was doing, but Kate and Peter took strict measures about that. In the end, Buzz wasn't very happy about his punishment and it had taken sometime for his parent's to gain trust in him. After that, Buzz always arrived home before curfew.

After visiting Santa, Kevin remained silent. The mission had been accomplished and all that he needed to do was just be patient and wait for it to happen. All Kevin hoped for was to have his Christmas wish come true. Even though it had been only two days that he and Becky had been left home alone, he really missed his family. "Becky?" Kevin suddenly said and looked up at his sister and clutched her hand with his as they walked down the street, "do you think that my wish will come true?"

It didn't take long for the teenager to reply to that. "It will," Becky said as she looked down at her brother, "it's Christmastime and I am sure that Santa will give those children who've been nice this year everything that they asked for."

Kevin remained quiet for a beat. He knew that he had been anything but nice this year and going by what Becky had said, Kevin didn't believe that he was even on the 'Nice List.' "I don't know about that, but I hope that he'll give me the chance. I don't even want toys or any presents, they are just things. Our family is the most important thing to have then just presents."

 _That was very deep for an eight year old_ Becky thought. It was a wonder on how much her little brother had matured during these past days of being without his family. Just like Kevin, she also hoped that their wish would come true. The house just seemed too quiet without their family. Kevin missed the days when he would be arguing with his siblings but then just laughing at whatever it was that they argued about. Becky missed the nights when she would be with Megan and Linnie, talking about different topics throughout the day, and she certainly missed Linnie's lectures about the types of clothes that she ought to wear. As for their parents, both siblings missed their daily doses of hugs and kisses.

"I am sure that they will Kevy," Becky smirked as she called him by the nickname that he detested, hoping that it would lighten the mood around them. "In the meantime, you have little ol' me to stick around with until your wish comes true."

"You're not old Becks," Kevin said as he didn't resist the urge to call her by a nickname that she didn't like either, "you're just annoying."

A playful gasp escaped from Becky's lips as she took a step back from her brother. Reaching towards a mound of snow, she formed a snowball in her hand and held it above her head, aiming for Kevin. "You'd better take those words back buddy."

"And if I don't?" Kevin asked in a sassy-like manner. He received his answer when Becky threw the snowball straight at him. The white ball flew through the air causing Kevin to twist in order to dodge the attack but it hit him right on the shoulder.

"I would say 'asked and answered,'" Becky answered triumphantly and wiped her hands against one another. It wasn't too long until she felt a snowball hitting her right in the face. "Very nice," she replied and wiped the side of her face with the sleeve of her coat.

Kevin shrugged. "I would have aimed for the head if I were you."

"Lucky that we both didn't. The last thing that we need is to go to a hospital," Becky said and wiped the last bit of moisture from her face.

"That's not what I meant," Kevin said, "if you want to distract someone or make them confused at least, aim for the head."

"What are you even talking about?" Becky asked, "don't tell me that you got your hands on Jeff's and Buzz's video games."

Kevin shook his head and rolled his eyes. "You'll see what I mean."

At that, Becky let out an annoyed groan. She didn't like how cryptic Kevin was being with his words but whatever it was that she was going to have to wait and see, she was not looking forward to it at all.

The siblings were almost on their way back home but to their left, a church came in their view. It was the exact church that Kevin had hidden into when those bandits had been chasing them. As Kevin looked at the church, Kevin wondered whether he should go in to at least see it since he had never been inside before. From within, there were voices that sounded like singing and it gave a wave of calmness and peace towards Kevin. _Maybe its better to go inside for a bit until nine_ Kevin thought and took the initiative of stepping into the snow and towards the church. It may have been the disguise that had saved Kevin from the bandits, but if it wasn't for this holy building then Kevin didn't know whether the disguise would have worked or not.

Seeing her brother walk through the snow, Becky followed after him. Just like her brother, Becky had never been inside the church before but in a night like this, Becky felt that she needed some peace and reassurance before heading back home. The choir got louder and melodious when the siblings were inside the beautiful church. Even though Kevin didn't say anything he was breath taken by the beauty of the church and the peaceful atmosphere. Right beside him, he took notice of a group of lit candles as their flames lightly danced about. There had to be a meaning behind those white candles and in a church, it had to do with a prayer of something or someone. Taking one last look at one of the candles whose flame stood still, Kevin walked past them and over to the pews where he took his seat with Becky sitting right next to him. Kevin snaked his arm around his sister's and held her close to him and leaned his head into her arm.

Becky looked down at her little brother and smiled. It was rare that Kevin did something like this with any of his siblings but it felt very nice and special upon the Christmas Eve night. Taking in the atmosphere of the church, Becky leaned her head back and enjoyed the beautiful choir that filled the church. Everything was peaceful until she heard her brother gasp. "Kevin what is it?" Becky asked.

Kevin didn't have the chance to answer Becky when he noticed a tall dark figure coming their way. Becky took notice of this figure and she clutched tightly onto Kevin. It was none other than Old Man Marley! Kevin didn't know whether he ought to make a run for it or scream for help. Instead he scooted closer to Becky and held her tightly on her arm. How much he wished that he had never heard of Buzz's horror story about their old neighbor. Did he have that shovel with him? Were him and Becky going to be turned into mummies this Christmas Eve?!

Becky on the other hand never had the opportunity to get to know their neighbor. When she was young, Buzz had been the one to frighten her with such horrific tales about Old Man Marley. As she grew, she realized that these tales were false, but that realization didn't make her feel at ease in any way, especially of how Old Man Marley acted and looked like. To her, Old Man Marley seemed like the type of man who never smiled and there had to be some sort of reason to that and those glassy blue eyes seemed to hold something tragic that had happened in his past but Becky had no idea of the details behind them.

"Merry Christmas," Old Man Marley said to them as a smile appeared upon his lips. That smile not only changed his physical look but his blue eyes lit up when he greeted them.

"Huh?" Kevin frowned at the sudden and joyful greeting for Old Man Marley. Out of all the things that Kevin had expected to happen, this was one that he didn't expect at all.

"May I sit down?" the aged man asked and Kevin nodded his head. At Kevin's consent, he took his seat right next to his siblings and that smile that he had didn't leave his lips. That smile was one that made Becky relax and even forget about what Buzz had told her in the past. It was a smile that held kindness, gentleness, and even sadness. Becky couldn't imagine what Old Man Marley must've gone through the years of his life, especially of the rumors that were spread around the neighborhood.

"You're Ol-I mean," Becky cleared her throat, "Mr. Marley."

Old Man Marley gave her a courteous smile. "I am. And you must be Rebecca Anne McCallister and Kevin McCallister."

Becky lightly blushed at being called by her full name. The last time she had heard being called such a name was when she had bought home a terrible grade on one of her tests. She shivered at that memory when her mother had sternly said her name and grounded her that night. "I am. It's very nice to finally meet you, sir."

From that moment on, Kevin realized if his parents ever held any sort of friendship with Old Man Marley. Otherwise, how would he know their names? And if his parent's had, weren't they aware of the rumors that had been spreading around about him. Whatever the case was, this was an opportunity for the two McCallister siblings to get to know their old neighbor better. After all, it wasn't wise to judge a book by it's cover.

* * *

"Oh my God," Marv grunted as he stretched out in the bed that was in the guest room. The nap that he took after that small Christmas dinner had been restless for the bandit. Not only had he been cold but there had been too much noise coming from the apartment next to them. Why did kids these days have to blast the music through the radio? Couldn't they at least find some other device to keep quiet? It was all the more tempting to rob the apartment next to them and keep that radio to himself. How would they feel if he was the one who blasted the music during the night whilst they were sleeping?

Throwing the covers off him, Marv changed into the usual clothes that he wore and made his way over to the kitchen. After all of the food that he ate, he was still hungry. Opening the refrigerator, he took out any leftover meal from the dinner that they had in the afternoon and made his way over to the table. When Harry's wife was in the mood for it, she sure could whip up a delicious meal even from whatever little they had.

"Evening Marv," Harry suddenly greeted him as he appeared from the hallway and into the kitchen.

"How'd you sleep?" Marv asked.

Harry answered him with a shrug of his shoulders. Other than the fact that Amy discovered that police uniform and the music that blasted through the walls from the apartment next to them, he had slept fairly well. "Want some coffee?"

"Sure," Marv answered.

"You seem pretty quiet, Marv," Harry pointed out as he made his way over to the coffee machine to make a fresh cup of coffee. On most nights, his fellow bandit was always enthusiastic and ready to get the day or in this case, night started.

"I just got up and I'm eating," Marv motioned over to the plate of cold food that was right in front of him, "and I didn't even sleep well."

"Well start waking up," Harry ordered, "we gotta head over to that house soon."

"Which house?" Marv asked, forgetting for a mere second what house they were speaking about. Harry rolled his eyes in annoyance and resisted the urge to take a cup from the cupboard and throw it at Marv. "Oh yeah," Marv suddenly said, "that house. Do we have a plan?"

When the coffee was finished, Harry poured a cup for himself and for Marv. "What we know about that house is that it's infested with two kids. There two of 'em and two of us. If you catch one of them then that'll make it easy to catch the other, which gives us the chance to get whatever we want from that house."

"And what'll we do with them after?" Marv asked. In contrast to Harry, Marv didn't have the violent streak as his friend had.

"Well we can't have them flapping their lips to the cops now can we Marv?" Harry questioned him.

Marv certainly didn't want to land in a jail cell as a result of their robbery. "So you're saying that we lock them in the closet?"

Harry was aware that Marv had just woken up from his nap but that didn't make him any less unintelligent than he already was. "No you idiot!" he snapped a little too loudly at that, "that's not gonna make them shut up about it!"

So the closet was not part of the plan. There were only two results that could happen and both of them didn't make Marv feel comfortable. "I don't think that's a good idea Harry. They're just kids."

"Kids who deceived us," Harry added, "they gotta know who they're messin' with. We're not known as..." he stopped himself short, hating the fact that he was going to agree and say it, "we're not known as the Wet Bandits for nothing."

It had never crossed Marv's mind that Harry would agree to a name like that and he felt rather proud of that. "The dangerous ones."

"And you want to keep that title don't you?" Harry prodded him.

"Yeah I do," Marv nodded his head and grinned at the thought of it. _The 'Wet Bandits_ ' _the most feared_ he thought.

"Then do it," Harry said, "do what you're supposed to do. Be the dangerous Wet Bandit that you're supposed to be."

Harry was quite the professional at giving his best friend some pep talk. The last thing that Harry wanted was for Marv to back out of their plan. He couldn't steal the whole house by himself against those two annoying children, not to mention that he had Marv had been doing this sort of job together for many years now and he was not going to let their partnership fall apart because of this.

"Ain't gonna let some kids stop us," Marv smirked at Harry, "at what time are we leaving?"

"About eight twenty," Harry said, "we should be there around nine sharp."

"And what about...?" Marv asked as he thumbed over to the room where Harry's wife was, at least he hoped, sleeping. He didn't want her to wake up and find them gone or worse, find them with bags over their shoulders of the items that they stole.

"Don't worry about her," Harry reassured his friend, "after I was done with her, she'll be sleeping through the whole night."

Marv gave Harry a dumbstruck look. "What?" he asked him.

"Just shut up and finish your food," Harry said wish a dismissive way of his hand, "we don't have much time."

* * *

It had been a very pleasant conversation with Old Man Marley. Not only did both of the McCallister siblings learn more about him, but they also came to the conclusion that he wasn't a bad man that others made him out to be. It had been terrible about what Buzz had said about him, but in the end, all that mattered was the friendship that had been established between them. As the siblings were making their way out of the church and back home, Kevin stopped by the candles.

"Wait," he said as he looked at Becky, "I want to light one." Taking a while candle from one of the boxes, Kevin help the wick of the candle towards one of the flames from the other candles. As the wick caught on fire, Kevin planted the candle upon the sand that was holding the others. "For Mr. Marley," he said as he looked at the candle whose flame began to lightly dance about. _I hope he gets his chance to talk with his son_ Kevin thought.

Becky smiled at her brother's gesture. It had been a very sad story of what had happened between Marley and his son, but Becky hoped for the better between them. "That's very sweet of you Kevin," she said to him.

"Thanks. He deserves to get his Christmas wish," Kevin said, "now come on. We have some uninvited guests coming over to our house."

"Let's give them the new McCallister welcoming party," Becky winked as she and her brother ran out of the church and towards home.

* * *

 **A/N: I would like to thank each and every one of you for your wonderful** **reviews! Thank you!**


	18. Battle Plan

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

The cold wind whipped through Kevin's face as he ran on his way home. There was not a second to lose. "Come on Becky!" Kevin shouted and pulled his sitter towards him. Becky staggered after him as she tried to keep up with Kevin's energy. She wished that she was as quick and agile was Megan was.

"Alright, alright I'm coming," Becky breathed out as she tried to keep up with a frantic Kevin.

Speeding down the street of their neighborhood, the Christmas lights lit up the moment that the siblings arrived home. Kevin opened the door of their home, got himself inside and leaned against it. "This is our house. We have to defend it. Get the blueprints Becky. We have a lot of work to do before nine."

Becky nodded her head and flew up the flight of stairs to retrieve the 'blueprints' as Kevin had called them. On the large paper, it contained every room that Kevin was planning on booby-trapping. "Oh I just hope this works," Becky mumbled to herself and made her way back over to her little brother. "Here," she said as she rolled out the paper onto the table.

Kevin looked at every single detail that was outlined on the paper. It made him smirk at the thought of having those two burglars go through a little torturous funhouse. "Good," Kevin said and looked up at Becky, "we're all set to get started."

"I'll go and get the ornaments," Becky volunteered as she left her spot and went down to the basement to retrieve them.

Meanwhile, Kevin headed upstairs and gathered every single MicroMachine that he could find. He remembered that night before the family had disappeared that Aunt Leslie had almost slipped and broke her neck. If it had the same effect on her, then it was bound to have the same effect on those two burglars.

Once Becky had retrieved the Christmas ornaments, she placed them underneath the window in the living room whilst Kevin placed the MicroMachines in the hallway. Two rooms down, a couple more to go and the little McCallister Funhouse would be complete.

* * *

"Bags and crowbars all set?" Harry asked as he made his way down the apartment building and towards the blue van. Time had moved very quickly but for both Harry and MArv, it was for the better. Harry just couldn't wait any longer to get his hands at that house.

At that question, Marv nodded his head. All the bags that were needed for the smaller items were in the back of the car as well as the two crowbars that they always carried. Marv had been thinking about that Harry had told him. He did want to be remembered as a dangerous 'Wet Bandit' but how dangerous did he want to be? There were just some things in this part of the plan that gave him discomfort and what Harry had on his mind was one of them. Marv wished that he had the strength to say something against that but when it came to negotiating with Harry, he always wound up as the loser in the conversation. If there were to go along with the plan and do it, how were they to keep this a secret from Amy? Or was Harry willing to threaten his own wife to keep quiet about it?

"Hey!" Harry said and gave his partner a push on his arm, "enough standing around. Let's go!"

Marv flinched at the push that Harry gave him but it was enough to snap him out of his thoughts. With a sigh, Marv walked around the van and got himself inside the passenger seat as Harry jumped into the driver's seat.

There were just a couple more minutes until it was officially nine 'clock.

* * *

"We did it," Kevin said as he gave one last check-up at the traps that they set around the house. Becky didn't know how they did it under such a limited amount of time but they had only a couple of minutes to spare.

"While we're waiting," Becky said and placed her hands on Kevin's shoulders, "let's make some dinner. I think that mac and cheese is calling my name."

"Hey," Kevin said as he looked up at his sister, "that's my mac and cheese! You don't even like mac and cheese!"

"Too late! I changed my mind about it!" Becky teased and flew towards the kitchen with Kevin running after her. Once Becky skidded in front of the refrigerator, she whipped open the door and pulled out the two frozen dinners.

Getting a glimpse of the box that contained the mac and cheese, Kevin immediately pulled the box away from Becky's grip as if she was really going to do it.

"Calm down," Becky giggled, "I wasn't going to do it."

"You're not funny," Kevin pouted.

Becky rolled her eyes at her brother's remark. "Now tell me something that I don't know," she said as she walked over to the microwave, "now come on! Let's have some dinner before they come!"

Kevin walked over to the microwave as Becky allowed him to go ahead and heat up his food. The time on the microwave read 8:55 and if he was fast enough, he could at least get some food in his stomach. After Kevin was finished, Becky went ahead and heated up her own dinner. She watched as the time on the screen began to countdown as if it was counting down to the final hour. A ding was heard when the food was finished heating up. Making her way over to the dining room, Becky almost giggled when she noticed Kevin sitting on the chair where their father sat. There were two candles that were lit right beside him, making the whole dining room look very Christmas like and peaceful.

"Very Christmas-like Kevin," Becky said, nodding her head in approval as she joined her brother at the table.

"Its what we have always done during Christmas Eve," Kevin smiled and turned his attention on the plate of mac and cheese in front of him. He made the cross and clasped his hands together. "Bless this highly nutritious microwavable macaroni and cheese dinner, and the people who sold it on sale. Amen," he said as he picked up his utensils and was about to dig into his food.

Suddenly, the grandfather clock began to chime, indicating that it was nine o'clock sharp. This was it! "Oh man," Becky whispered. She felt a sharp pain in her stomach but now was not the time to feel scared. She had to help and protect her little brother from any harm that come their way.

Kevin blew out the candles and took his sister's hand as they made their way over to the kitchen. Picking up Buzz's rifle, Kevin looked at Becky. "This is it, don't get scared."

* * *

This was it, and there was no turning back. Harry smirked as he noticed the McCallister house coming into view. The Christmas lights shined brightly down the driveway and this time, the place wasn't jumping nor infested with gangsters like the last two times. He and Marv slipped out of the car and looked at the house before them. Marv let out a sigh as his breath turned to fog under the cold atmosphere. "How do you want to do this?" he asked as he looked down at Harry.

"We'll go to the backdoor. Maybe they'll let us in," Harry said.

"Yeah, they're kids. Kids are stupid," Marv said as he tried to reassure himself that things would go smoothly.

As opposed to Marv, Harry's thoughts differed. The girl didn't seem to be the brightest candle after that whole 'babysitter' story that she had told, but that boy seemed to be something else. There was something mischievous about him but at what level at it, Harry didn't know. "Come on," Harry said as he motioned for his partner to follow. Walking through the snow, the two bandits walked over to the backdoor. Harry hoped that one of them would open to door and once it would open, they would grab them and the items that he house offered.

* * *

Two silhouetted figures appeared by the door. Kevin felt himself trembling at that sight but he didn't want to be afraid. He needed to be brave and protect his home from those two men.

"Merry Christmas little fellas," Harry's voice came in from the doorway. "We know that you're in there and that you're all alone."

Yeah come on kids open up," Marv's voice came, "it's Santa Clause and his elf."

 _Not the brightest trick_ Becky thought. Even if the siblings hadn't overheard the burglar's plan, neither one of them would have opened the door. At the time of night, it seemed very strange to have visitors over the house. Kevin on the other hand was one step ahead from the bandits. He knelt on the floor and snaked the rifle right through the doggie door and positioned his finger for the perfect moment to shoot.

"Be a good little fella now and open the door," Harry insisted. Right at the moment, Kevin fired and a scream was heard from the outside.

Becky heard the bandit yell before he started shouting words that sounded like mumbles with a mixture of swears. "Geeze," Becky almost let out a loud laugh as she bent over and held her sides.

Kevin looked over his shoulder and gave his sister a mischievous smile. "We got this handled Becky."

"Yeah we-" Becky said until she stopped short when the doggy door lifted up and Marv head appeared. The burglar looked from one sibling to the other and grinned. "That's just creepy."

"Hello," Kevin smiled at Marv before firing at his head with the gun.

Feeling the bullet ricochet off his forehead, Marv slipped away from the doggy door and fell against the pavement on his back. To think that Harry felt great pain where he was hit, Marv felt as if he was hit with bricks. So much for them being helpless little kids. This was absolutely criminal to what they were doing to them and it made Marv enraged. Any sympathy that he had before had disappeared. "The little jerk is armed!" Marv yelled and continued to clutch his forehead with his palm, hoping that the pain would go away.

"That's it!" Harry yelled, clearly enraged by the damage that those children had caused them, "I'm going in the front, you go down the basement!"

In the meantime, Kevin and Becky decided to split up. Kevin ran over to the front entrance of the house where he had placed a hot object on the door handle. As for Becky, she headed over to the basement where they were would be a couple of nice surprises awaiting one of the burglars. According to Kevin, he had iced the stairs that led down to the basement, tarred every step of the stairs, and even placed a nail on a foamy-like sheet and placed it on one of the stairs. Depending on which burglar it was going to be, he was going to have quite the time of his life getting through the traps. All she needed now was to wait for the proper moment to appear by the doorway.

On the outside, Marv stood on top of the stairs and looked down at the basement. As he took a step forward, his shoe sloped and he fell down the flight of stairs. "Ow," he moaned. He hadn't expected for the stairs to be _that_ slippery. Slowly, Marv got himself up from the ground only to feel his feet slipping underneath the sheet of ice that had formed on the ground. He managed to support himself and once he did, he gave the door a nudge with his crowbar and then opened the door.

Inside, the basement was completely dark. Maybe one of those kids was hiding in the darkness, waiting for the right moment to jump out and catch him by surprise. All he needed was just a little light and he spotted a little lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Giving the string a tug, the whole light bulb fell from the ceiling and a sound of an object falling was heard above him. Before Marv had the chance to react, the metal plate from the iron made contact with his face.

Becky heard the clang coming in from the basement and that was her cue to make her appearance. She opened the door and stood on the top floor. She noticed Marv lying on the floor but it wasn't long before he got up and looked right at Becky. "Nice face," Becky teased with a smirk upon her lips.

A growl escaped from Marv as he frowned at the girl. These kids were diabolical! But Marv wasn't going to let them get the best of him. He staggered to his feet and made his way over to the steps.

Becky didn't budge from her spot. Now this was going to be quite the amusing thing to watch. As Marv took a step towards on one of the steps, his shoes became stuck. "Damn it," he whispered and pulled out his feet from his shoes only to get his red socks stuck.

"Are you stuck?" Becky asked, "here let me help you," she said as she held out her hand towards Marv.

If Marv had arms that were longer than they already were, he would have grabbed her hand and pulled her down the stairs. "Don't patronize me!" Marv yelled and tried as best as he could to make his way up the stairs.

"Did I hurt your feelings?" Becky prodded, "I don't think I hurt them as much as your foot."

Marv was confused at what Becky had meant by her words but the moment that he placed his foot on the nail, the bottom of his foot began to sear in pain. He let out a scream and clutched his foot and fell down the stairs and back onto the basement floor.

"Have nice trip, see you next fall!" Becky yelled. She thought that she was going too far with her teasing the bandits, but what fun would it be if she didn't. With that, she shut the basement door and went to find Kevin.

* * *

Kevin had lost count at the amount of times that Harry had attempted to make his way up the stairs of the front door, only to fall back down again. Kevin had to admit that Harry had quite the determination to get up and try against after the numerous amount of times that he had fallen.

There was a saying that went if at first you don't succeed, try again but no matter how much Harry had tried, his back wound up in great pain. Oh were those two kids going to get it. The bandit got up from the pavement and held onto the railing and this time, he triumphantly made it to the door. _Finally_ he thought as he looked inside the window to make sure that one of those children was inside. He reached over to the doorknob and grabbed it tightly. A burning sensation surged through Harry's hand as the bandit screamed in pain and fell back against the icy steps. Immediately, he placed his hand inside the snow and it cool down his hand. The pain seemed to subside but a mark of the letter _M_ was burned within the palm of his hand.

 _M_. A litter that would always serve as a reminder to Harry. _M_ for Malicious. _M_ for Malevolent. _M_ for McCallister.

"Yes!" Kevin cheered as he jumped in the air before running across the hallway to find his sister. He was not only excited but also very pleased at how the traps were working against the bandits. Kevin saw Becky from the other side of the hose and he ran into her and hugged her. "It's working!"

"Nice touch with the nail," Becky winked, "now how are we going to surprise Moe and Larry when they come inside?"

Kevin chuckled at the use of those names. Stooges they were! "We'll wait for them at the stairs right after they have a nice trip from the MicroMachines. You go over there," the eight year old instructed to his older sister as he pointed to the stairs. "I need to take care of something first."

Nodding her head, Becky took off to the flight of stairs and sat there whilst Kevin headed over to the kitchen. Earlier before the bandits came, Kevin had set up a large fan with feathers set in front of it. As he was readjusting the fax, he heard the back door slam open and Harry yelling, "where are you, you little creeps!"

Becky jumped in her spot when she heard the shattering of the Christmas ornaments and Marv yelling. Looks like his feet had a nice meeting with the ornaments. "Oh hurry up Kevin," Becky whispered and a look of worry passed over her face as she looked down the path that Kevin had run off to.

In the dining room, Kevin heard Harry's footsteps coming towards the dining room. "Oh no I'm really scared!" Kevin said.

"It's too late for you kid, we're already in the house we're gonna get ya!" Harry yelled through the door.

"Okay come and get me," Kevin said before taking off from the dining room and running over where Becky was.

Upon seeing her brother, Becky perked up when she saw him. "The other one came inside the house," Becky informed him, "his feet met the ornaments."

 _Check_ Kevin thought and nodded his head. "This has actually turned out to be very fun." _And Megan called me 'helpless_ ' he added to his thoughts but chose not to say it out loud. Even if Megan had said that about him, it made him miss her more but now Kevin had to focus in busting these two. Taking a deep breath, Kevin held the palms of his hands over his mouth and yelled, "we're up here morons! Come on get us!"

Hearing his voice, Harry and Marv hurried over to the where they heard Kevin's voice and they failed to see the MicroMachines that were set up. Once they stepped on them, both men were sent flying into the air and landing on the floor with a thud.

"Nice night for a neck injury," Becky laughed.

"Do you guys give up or are you thirsty for more?" Kevin smirked before he and his sister took off upstairs.

The bandits had enough of these painful traps. The more they went through, the angrier they got. "Those little..." Harry said before he began to mumble a couple of words to himself. "Get up Marv!" he yelled at his partner who was still lying on the ground but managed to lift himself up. "Wait till I get my hands on them!" Harry yelled and made his way up the stairs.

Kevin looked down from the flight of stairs and then threw a paint can towards them. Harry heard a whooping noise coming towards him and he stopped in his steps. "Heads up!" he yelled and quickly ducked down.

Marv wasn't too lucky in dodging the paint can. The can hit him right on the hose and he was thrown backwards and down the stairs.

"Don't worry Marv, I'll get him for you," Harry said but at that moment, he was struck by a second paint can and thrown on top of Marv.

Upon seeing that, Becky raised her hand in the air and Kevin gave her a high five. "We need to spilt up," he then said to his sister, which left her in shock.

"Wait, what?" Becky blinked as she turned her head and looked at him.

"You need to lead one of them over to the Murphy's house. The police will be there," Kevin instructed her.

Murphy's house? Police? "Kevin...I can't," Becky said but her brother dashed right into their parent's bedroom and Becky followed after him.

Kevin picked up the receiver and dialed 911. "911 what's your emergency?" a voice said at the other side of the line.

"Hello my house is being robbed," Kevin said to the telephone with a deep voice, "my address is 656 Lincoln Boulevard. My name is Murphy." Quickly he placed the telephone back on the receiver and made a dash through the hall and over to the third floor.

Everything was happening so fast that Becky didn't even know how to react. The moment that Kevin made his way over to the third floor, the bandits spotted him. Kevin ducked under the tripwire to escape, but Harry didn't see the tripwire and he tripped over the wire and flipped onto his back. As for Marv, he noticed what had happened to his fellow friend and he jumped over the tripwire. He held out his hand and grabbed Kevin by the ankle. "I got him Harry!"

From the bedroom, Becky gasped when she saw her little brother captured. "L-Let," her voice came out as meek before she cleared her throat and tried again. "Let him go!"

Hearing that voice, Marv turned his head and looked at her. Upon doing so, he lost his grip on Kevin's ankle and that gave the opportunity to the eight year old to run upstairs. "Hey!" Marv yelled once Kevin ran up the stairs. Getting up to his feet, Marv looked over to Harry who seemed unconscious at the moment. Even though he wanted to care for his friend, he couldn't let the other sibling get away.

"A fallen comrade, hmm?" Becky said as she leaned against the doorway of the bedroom.

Marv turned his blue eyes towards her and frowned. One may have gotten away but this one wasn't going to. "Come here," he growled as he jumped over the tripwire and made his way towards her.

For someone who had injured his feet, Becky was surprised that he moved as quick as lightning. She wasn't quick to react as Marv's hand gripped onto the hood of her sweater. "No!" she yelled as she tried to twist away from him but she wound up falling backwards.

"Gotcha!" Marv exclaimed in triumph and pulled the redhead towards him. He wrapped an arm around her to secure her in place so there would be no chance of escape.

"Let me go!" Becky yelled as she thrashed under his grip.

"Ain't happening!" Marv snapped and tightened his grip around her.

Becky tried to reach over to her hood and grab a hold of Marv's fingers to release them from her hood. Her attempts were futile against the bandit but if she couldn't release his fingers from her hood, then she was going to make him to do. She raised her foot in the air and then slammed it on top of Marv's toes.

"OW!" Marv yelped and released the girl's hood, which made Becky dash down the stairs. As for Marv, he instinctively grabbed his foot and inspected it for any new injuries.

"Way to go Marv," Harry suddenly spoke up, having awoken from his fall. He felt a bit dizzy but he was still able to see what had happened. "Letting a little girl get the best of you."

"She stepped on my foot!" Marv yelled and indicated over to his abused feet.

"And I've been burned on the head, my hand, fallen plenty of times, glued and feathered, hit with a paint can in the face and I ain't complaining about it!" Harry yelled at him, "now where did those creeps go?" he asked and looked around him, suspecting that something else might pop out.

"He ran up the third floor and the girl went downstairs," Marv said but he kept quiet about the fact that he had grabbed Kevin but then let him go due to him being distracted.

Harry shook his head. _Just great! What was supposed to be simple turned out complicated._ "I'd like to slap 'em both with a paint can," he said as he noticed one of the cans suspended in the air. His eyes wandered around the first floor to see if there was anyway that they could get out but it wasn't worth risking anymore bones of going down that Funhouse of Pain. The bandit turned his head to the stairs that led to the third floor and motioned for Marv to follow him.

The room was empty once the bandits made their way up the stairs. A cool breeze came into the room and Harry made his way over to it. He noticed that there was a long top reaching from the bedroom window and over to a treehouse but there was no sight of the little kid. "Where is he?" Harry said.

"Maybe he committed suicide," Marv suggested when he heard Harry, but he received a look of disapproval from the other.

"I'm over here!" Kevin yelled from the treehouse as he caught the bandits' attention. "Come and get me before I call the police!"

 _Calling the cops from the treehouse? Yeah real bright kid. I ain't going back to that funhouse of yours_ Harry thought as he took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around his hand. "Come on," he said to Marv and grabbed a hold of the rope.

Marv's eyes widened at what Harry was doing. Going through the traps in that house was one thing but heights? They were a whole different thing for Marv. "Out the window? I'm not going out the window!"

As for Harry, now was not the time for him to hear Marv's complaints. "Are you scared Marv? Are you afraid?" Harry teased before he frowned at his friend, "come on already!"

Marv knew that if he didn't that would upset Harry even more. Reluctantly, Marv obeyed and grabbed the rope and made his way out the window. The moment that he was hanging from the rope, a rush of fear came over to him. They were just too high up! Marv could feel the palms of gloved hands beginning to sweat just by looking at how high up they were. "Let's go back Harry!" he begged.

"Shut up!" Harry said, "we're almost there!"

From the treehouse, Kevin smirked when he saw the bandits foolishly hanging onto the rope and making their way towards the treehouse as if they were part of a circus act. Kevin was not finished with this part of the traps yet. There was still one more trick before the grand finale. Kevin reached over to a corner of the treehouse and grabbed onto a pair of garden shears and held it under the rope. "Hey guys, check this out!"

Harry looked from the side of his vision and gasped. _Are you kiddin' me?!_ he thought. "Go back! Move it!" He didn't need to tell Marv twice because the bandit was hurrying as quickly as he could to get back to the window. Suddenly, the rope snapped and the two of them swung towards a brick wall and landed onto the snow.

Once the bandits had fallen, Kevin made his way down the tree and was about to head over to the Murphy's home when it occurred to him that Becky had not accomplished the plan like he had asked her to. Speaking of which, where was she? Kevin knew that he didn't have much time to wonder where his sister had disappeared off to and if he could finish this by himself, then he would. Turning his attention back to the bandits, Kevin said, "hey I'm calling the cops!" before he took off down the street.

Harry and Marv got up on the feet. "He wants us to follow him," Harry said as he suddenly got an idea. "Marv here's what we're gonna do-hey!" he yelled and flinched when he felt something cold hit him on the back of his head. Harry staggered forward and felt a cold sensation trickling down his neck. He whipped around and saw Becky standing behind them with a snowball in her hand.

"Hey you two!" Becky yelled from the distance that she was in, hoping that this could be of a good distraction to help Kevin make his getaway. "Come and get me!"

 _Those bundle of miseries have split up_ Harry thought. "We'll spilt," he whispered to Marv, "you get her and I'll get the kid and we'll meet over at that house over there," he instructed and pointed over to the house that Kevin had run towards to.

"Good plan Harry," Marv agreed with a nod of his head.

With the plan in motion, both men ran towards the house but due to the darkness and where Becky was standing, it made it seem as if the both of them just disappeared. However, Marv hid himself behind a tree and awaited for the girl to come towards him.

Becky had been left dumbstruck. For a minute there, she had thought that they were going to chase after her. "Kevin," she said, concerned about her little brother's safety and made her way towards the house.

Marv tried to remain as still as he could. He could hear her feet trudging through the snow and the closer they got, the more prepared he became. Suddenly, a flash of green came into view from his peripheral vision and like a snake ready to strike, he quickly reached out and grabbed her by the hood.

Becky let out a yelp as she almost lost her foot.

"Gotcha!" Marv said and this time, he made sure to keep her lethal shoes away from his feet. He pulled her close to him and held her under the arms and off the ground as if he was holding a toddler than a teenager.

"Let go!" Becky yelled as she attempted to push Marv away from her but the man was taller and stronger than she was.

"Nice try," Marv smirked, "and this time, it ain't happening!"

* * *

 _Those little creeps think they're so smart_ Harry though and made his way around the home that they had robbed before. Once he got to the doorway, he made sure that there was nothing hanging or burning or anything that would pop out of nowhere. Once Harry determined that everything was safe, he opened the door and was welcomed by a flooded floor. "Idiot," Harry muttered about Marv as the water soaked through his shoes. In any case, that water wasn't going to stop him from getting that kid. He followed the flow of the water as it led him to a door that suddenly opened and revealed Kevin. Not only did the kid look surprised but he also looked scared.

"Hiya pal," Harry smirked, "we outsmarted you this time." That smirk then changed into anger and Harry reached forward and pulled him into the room. Nailed to the door, there was a hook and Harry picked up Kevin and hung him there.

"I got her Harry!" Marv suddenly yelled as he walked into the house with Becky.

Harry smirked upon hearing that and motioned to Marv to bring her over. Now that they had caught the two little mice, he was going to deal with them first before dealing with the house. Harry watched as Marv plopped the teenager right next to her brother. "Make sure she doesn't escape," Harry said, "she's as tricky as this little bundle of misery," he said as he looked back at Kevin.

Complying to Harry's wishes, Marv placed a hand around Becky's throat and pushed her against the wall, making sure that she was secured in her place. "What are we going to do to them Harry?"

"We'll do exactly what they did to us," Harry said, growing angry as he thought of the pain that they were put through, "I'd like to burn their heads with a blowtorch."

"And smash their faces with an iron!" Marv turned red.

"I'd like to slap 'em with a paint can," Harry added.

"Or shove a nail through their foot," Marv continued.

Both Kevin and Becky shuddered under their threats. They had saved their home from being raided but the outcome for the both of them had been disastrous. Becky reached over and took a hold of Kevin's hand and held it tightly. She felt it as Kevin squeezed her hand in return. Whether it meant that he was afraid or if everything was going to be alright, Becky didn't know.

"But first what I'm gonna do is bite off these little fingers one at a time," Harry said as he took a hold of Kevin's hand and held his finger towards his mouth.

"And once he's through, I wouldn't mind playing connect-the-dots with those freckles of yours,' Marv sneered as he looked at Becky.

"No!" Becky yelled as she looked at Harry at what he was about to do with Kevin, "please don't-" she was suddenly silenced as Marv pressed his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

"Shut up," Harry said, "no one asked you."

Kevin shut his eyes and braced himself for the pain when a loud clang was heard. He turned his head to his left and saw Marv leaning against the door before he slipped on the floor. Harry whipped around to see who it was but before he could react, he was hit in the face with a shovel and knocked on the floor. Both McCallister siblings looked up from the ground and saw that it was none other than Old Man Marley. "Mr. Marley," Becky breathed as she staggered forward to their neighbor and wrapped her arms around him, "you're a sight for sore eyes."

Old Man Marley smiled as he gave the teenager a gentle pat on the back. He then walked over to Kevin and took him in his arms. "Come on, let's get you home."

Kevin didn't know how Old Man Marley had found out about the bandits or that he and Becky were in this house, but he was very thankful that he had come in just in time before his finger suffered any injury. "Wow," Kevin whispered and looked down at the floor and saw the fallen bandits one last time before he and Becky were escorted back to their home.


	19. A-Not-so Merry Christmas

**Disclaimer: I do not own Home Alone.**

* * *

Kevin huddled up close to Becky as the siblings made their way back home with Mr. Marley. Both of the siblings were relieved at the coincidence that had just landed upon them and even saved them from a terrible fate. "Thank you so much for this Mr. Marley," Kevin heard his sister say, once they were within the vicinity of their home, as he looked up and smiled at their old neighbor in return. Looks like that shovel worked for something better than shoveling snow and sprinkling the sidewalks with salt.

Old Man Marley smiled down at the two children. He was relieved that he was able to save them in time. One thing about those bandits was that they were not clever enough to keep themselves quiet from all of the pain that they endured through those traps. It was also the moment where Marley was relieved that he had kept the windows of his living room open for the night to let in the Christmas Eve night air. That way he was able to hear all of the pandemonium that was occurring outside. "Will your two be alright here by yourselves?" he asked them, "you are more than welcome to stay at my place until the police, or even your parents arrive."

"No thanks Mr. Marley," Kevin piped up and looked at him, "the cops should be here soon. We'll be alright now, won't we Becky?" he asked as he looked over to his sister and smiled.

"That we will," Becky agreed with a nod of her head.

Marley didn't know how these two had managed to outrun those bandits with just booby-trapping the house, a fact that he had learned from Kevin as he was taking the siblings back home. For one thing, he was very impressed about that but for any further questions, he was going to save those for the near future. "If you need anything, I am only a house away," he said before finishing his visit with a smile. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," the siblings said in unison and escorted their neighbor out the door. Both Kevin and Becky watched as Marley's figure became smaller in the distance as they aged man made his way back home. Kevin leaned against the doorway as he watched Marley, wondering how he would be spending Christmas in the morning. If anything, and if his wish didn't come true, maybe he would take Becky to spend Christmas with Mr. Marley.

Once Mr. Marley disappeared into the night, Becky closed the door and looked over at Kevin. "We have a lot of work to do to clean this place." Cleaning up was the last thing that either of the siblings wanted to do but Christmas was almost here and such a holiday needed to be welcomed in a properly cleaned home.

Before Kevin could say anything, he perked up when he heard the sirens coming towards the Murphy's home. He scampered over to the window and looked out where he noticed the red and blue light surrounding the house. It wasn't long before two policemen escorted the bandits out of the house. "Wow, this is great," Kevin said and looked over at Becky who let out a yawn in return.

After her yawn, Becky smiled but she was not at all tempted to see what was happening out there. Both of them had enough excitement for one night and all she needed not was a long sleep within the warm covers of the bed. But Becky knew that she was going to be imagining that once the house was cleaned. "They won't bother us anymore."

 _That's for sure_ Kevin thought and let the curtain cover the window once the police car pulled away from the house with the two bandits inside. Kevin then walked over to his sister and sat down beside her. "Merry Christmas Becky," he said and leaned his head over her arm.

Becky perked up when Kevin said so. Was it midnight already? Looking over to her little brother, Becky leaned her head close to him and said, "Merry Christmas Kevin."

* * *

A loud pounding vibrated off the walls of the apartment, startling Amy from her sleep as she gasped and bolted up in her bed in a sitting position. The pounding on the door continued and she pulled the covers against her and curled against the headboard of the bed. "What?" she whimpered and at that moment, she turned her head and looked at the empty side of the bed. "H-Harry?" she said but the pounding continued to get louder, causing her to shrink into the covers of the bed.

The clock on the drawer read twelve at midnight. Who was pounding on the door at this hour? On Christmas? Unless it could have been either Harry or Marv who had forgotten to take the keys with them. But they wouldn't be banging on the door so loud! Also, Amy remembered that she had seen Marv go into the guest bedroom for his sleep while she remained with Harry in theirs. Slowly, Amy got up from her bed and walked to the door. Standing on the tip of her toes, she peeked through the peephole and let out a gasp.

Right outside the door there were two police officers, one who was older than the other. But what were they officers doing at the apartment?

Turning away from the door, Amy scampered over to the guest room where she was hoping to find Marv, but when she got there the bed was unmade and empty. Another loud knock came from the door and Amy turned her head to look at it as if the officers were going to materialize through the door. Was it possible that the police showing up have soothing to do with Marv's and Harry's disappearance? Reluctantly, Amy walked over to the door and opened it where she finally came in contact with the officers. The both of them were rather tall in heigh compared to Amy that she had to crane her neck and look up at them. If Marv had been standing by their side, he would be practically towering over the both of them. "Yes...officers?" Amy asked as she clung onto the doorknob, thinking that it would be her only support.

"Ma'am, are you Amy Lime? The wife of Harry Lime?" the senior police officer asked.

Amy's eyes widened at that question. "Oh my God what's happened to him?" she asked and gripped the front collar of her shirt in worry.

The younger police officer glanced at her. "He and his parter, Marvin Merchants, have been arrested."

If Amy hadn't been holding onto the doorknob she would have fallen on the floor. "What?" she breathed out, "a-arrested?"

The officers looked at one another as if they hadn't expected this sort of question from Amy. To the senior officer's mind, either Amy was a really good actress or she had no idea what was going on. "Your husband and his friend," the senior officer continued, "have been stealing from houses, flooding them, and calling themselves...what was it that one of them said, Ray?" he asked his partner.

The younger officer, who went by the name of Ray, flipped through his notepad and read, "Wet Bandits."

Amy looked at the two men aghast. "Stealing? There must be some mistake! They work in plumbing!"

"They seemed to have you fooled Mrs. Lime," the senior officer, "if I should call you that, that is."

"My marital status is none of your concern!" Amy said sounding harsh than she had intended to.

However, the officer continued as if he had not paid any attention to what Amy had just said, "they're neither licensed nor are they contracted with any company around Chicago."

Out of all the people in the world, why did it have to be Harry who was the one to end up in jail? Was there a sign that Amy had missed after all these years that she had been married to him? Had it been her sudden breakdown those eight years ago when she was certain that they had finally settled and could make a family? Was it her fault? "Maybe you have the wrong guys," she suddenly spoke up.

"No," Ray said as he shut the notepad and looked over at his partner, "everything that my partner said was true and everything was a match."

Letting out a sigh, Amy leaned her head against the doorframe and shut her eyes. Why did thing have to be like this? Why on Christmas? Why ever?

"Did you," Ray asked as he pointed at her with the pen in his hand, "have any idea about their whereabouts?"

Amy lifted her head from the doorframe and tried her best not to glare at him. How dare he ask her such a question? Did he expect her to be a culprit as well? "No," she answered, trying to keep her anger at bay, as she shook her head. "All I knew was that they had their job as plumbers for around the area, which turned out to be a complete lie," she added and looked elsewhere.

"Well," the senior officer said as he looked at his partner, "we may need you to come in with us for some further questions at the station."

At that moment, Amy looked directly at the both of them. "What do you need me there for? I told you everything I knew!"

"Its standard procedure," Ray said and tapped his pen against his notepad, causing tiny streaks of ink across the sheet of yellow paper.

"And we just want to be sure that we have our facts straight. It will only be for a few minutes," the other officer added.

Amy knew that if she tried to resist, she had that feeling that she wouldn't be triumphant in the end. "Fine," she said and looked down at her feet and then at the officers, "just let me change." With that, she pulled herself away from the doorway and allowed the officers to have a full view of the apartment.

Amy fast walked over to her bedroom and shut the door. She leaned against the door and tightened her fist after recalling the words that she had just exchanged with the officers. She felt hurt, angry, and extremely disappointed. Why would Harry, and even Marv for that matter, lie to her about this? It took all her will to not throw an object across the room or even tear that golden band around her finger and fling it over her shoulder and hope to never find it. Even she did, she knew that all of those years of being with Harry would be marked upon that finger of where that golden band was.

She suddenly slipped out of her pajamas and into the clothes that she wore whenever she went outside. _This is just crazy_ she thought. It was just too hard to believe at what was happening. So many aspects of her life had gone wrong while being in the marriage but this one was just the cherry on top of it all. Letting out a sigh and not even caring how she looked like, Amy made her way out of the bedroom and back where she had left the officers. "Alright officers, I am-" she stopped when she suddenly saw one of them leaping off the couch where he sat and pounced over to her.

Amy didn't know whether she had let out a shriek or not but for one thing, her back was against the floor and she was staring into the blue cold eyes of the young officer. "What the hell is this?!" she yelled and tried to struggle free from under his grip.

"Hold her up, Ray," the senior man said as he stalked over to the both of them.

"Come on," Ray said as he got up from Amy and pulled her on her feet. He kept her arms behind her in a firm grip to make her chances of escape futile.

Within his grip, Amy could feel herself shaking and she couldn't find the urge to make eye contact with either of them. However, the senior man had a different plan. He reached over with his hand and placed it under shin so she could look up at him. The man could see that there was fear in her eyes and it made him delighted to see that. Perhaps he could instill the same fear upon Harry, if he could get out of jail that is. "Now that we have your attention Mrs. Lime, you'll listen to us well. Harry owes us, and he owes us big."


End file.
